Political analyst comments on EU-US-Armenia meeting

Suren Surenyants, a Yerevan-based political analyst who leads the Democratic Alternatives Party, claims Friday’s trilateral meeting between Armenia, the EU and the U.S. added to tensions in the South Caucasus region.

“In a different situation where Armenian-Russian relations would not have been so strained, this meeting would have been welcomed,” he told reporters ahead of a rally in Yerevan’s Aznavour Square on Saturday.

The analyst states Armenia is going to get favors from the West in return for making unilateral concessions to Azerbaijan and sticking to the anti-Russian rhetoric.

"Obviously, there are more risks than rewards. All regional powers – Russia, Turkey and Iran – decried the meeting, while Azerbaijan opened sporadic gunfire on Armenian positions immediately after it, indicating the lack of clear guarantees from the West,” Surenyants said.

He attached great importance to Armenia’s relations with the West, at the same time adding they should not be focused on Russophobia.