Armenia seeks to ally with West in Putin's backyard

Prime minister Nikol Pashinyan says that his country needs support to avoid war with Azerbaijan, writes Kim Sengupta

- Kim Sengupta

While international attention has been focused on the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, with fears of a conflict between Iran and Israel, a crisis of great geopolitical significance is unfolding in the Caucasus.

After a short and brief conflict with Azerbaijan, a neighbouring adversary, Armenia is in the process of breaking away from its historic ties with Russia to become a Western ally in Vladimir Putin’s backyard.

Players engaged in the bloody strife in Ukraine and the Middle East are also present in this one. Russia – the supposed ally of Armenia – failed to protect the country from Azerbaijani invasion and has appeared to have changed sides; Israel, which has sent huge quantities of weapons to help Azerbaijan; and Shia Iran, which has declared that it will not allow its border with Armenia to slip into control of Sunni Azerbaijan and the “Zionist entity” backing it.

Armenia’s prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, knows the pitfalls he faces in managing the pivot to the West while, at the same time, avoiding another war with Azerbaijan which holds the whip hand militarily, and whose ruler, Ilham Aliyev, has continued to threaten further offensives.

Pashinyan’s attempts at a balancing act have led to accusations of appeasement at home, with claims he is making too many concessions to Aliyev with little in return. Protests are taking place over his government’s decision last week to hand over four villages to Azerbaijan.