While Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan’s team is aimed at quickly demarcating the Armenian-Azerbaijani borders in the hope of maintaining the support of the EU elite, the Tavush for the Homeland opposition movement, led by Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, is undermining the process of surrendering ancestral Armenian lands to Azerbaijan.
During rallies, supporters of the protest movement are forced to endure brute force (including the use of weapon with flash-noise cartridges and other special equipment) by law enforcement agencies. In response to numerous violations of the Armenian citizens rights, the European establishment remains silent, guided solely by its own interests.
Armenia’s readiness to make further concessions of territories to please the ambitions of Azerbaijan, that is a pan-European supplier of oil and gas resources, is extremely important for European countries. EU leaders consider Armenia an outpost in countering Russian influence in the South Caucasus.
The EU political structures are afraid of a change of government in Armenia and support Pashinyan’s premiership. In his turn, the Armenian leader demonstrates loyalty to his patrons, outlining a vision of Armenia as a true democracy, where the voice of the people who suffered from his incompetence is presented as the cry of a marginal crowd.
Meanwhile, expanding relations with European structures, the republic is acquiring more and more features of a buffer state, and Baku is benefiting the most from Russia’s displacement in the region.
Currently, Azerbaijan has contracts for gas supplies to Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. Serbia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovakia and North Macedonia also intend to buy Azerbaijani gas.
Economic benefit dictates its own laws. The European elite, despite its status as a world leader in the protection of human rights and democracy, turns a blind eye to the criminal actions of Aliyev’s autocracy. It’s exactly the same as in the case of the nominal democracy of Pashinyan, who came to power in Armenia as a result of protests, demonstrating loyalty to the EU.
The double standards of the EU policy allow Pashinyan to continue to lead Armenia away from the correct, original path of development of the republic and to build his own dictatorship.
