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The December of 2016 was quite full of political developments, namely high profile visits, agreements and arrangements the implementation of which can leave a significant impact both on separate countries and the developments expected in the South Caucasus in general. Panaorama.am has conducted an interview with expert on regional issues Armen Petrosyan on the above mentioned topic.

Panorama.am: Do you see any threats for Armenia emerging from Israel-Azerbaijan cooperation?

Armen Petrosyan: Armenia is under the threat of war which can be unleashed by Azernaijan at any time. In this respect any military cooperation between Azerbaijan and a foreign state naturally raises some concerns. However no direct threat is observed against Armenia from Israel. Tel Aviv has no reason to confront with Armenia, as well as it lacks the necessary resources to expand its own interests in this region taking also into account the factor of the powers that dominate in the region. The Jewish country is interested to cooperate with Azerbaijan in the two main spheres: the economic and defense spheres.

Panorama.am: What measures can be taken by Armenia to neutralize even the indirect threat from the Israel-Azerbaijan cooperation?    

Armen Petrosyan: I am firmly convinced that the foreign policy of Armenia should not be based on hindering different relations between our hostile neighboring countries or establishing countermeasures against them. Armenia’s foreign policy must exclusively be directed to the comprehensive development of our country with the vison of registering maximum progress with minimum capacities. The adoption of such an agenda will destroy the hostile plans against our country. In connection with this we can bring the example of the relations between Israel and Azerbaijan. With its positive sides cooperation between the two counters is also controversial as it brings forward serious additional issues and additional resources and affords are to be used to cope with them. Armenia make use of the negative consequences of the cooperation between the two countries.

Panorama.am: What issues it refers to in particular? 

Armen Petrosyan: In case of Azerbaijan the issue mainly referw to its foreign policy. In addition to the problems Azerbaijan faces in its relations with Iran I also want to mention the obvious displeasure of the Muslim countries towards that cooperation. Some announcements made in Baku regarding the cooperation reached between the two countries in the internal security and energy spheres, which particularly refers to the alleged cooperation between the special services of the two countries regarding the Azerbaijan's internal security sphere, as well as the possibilities of exporting the Israeli gas to the European countries through Azerbaijan-Turkish Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) can cause substantial disagreements in Azerbaijan’s relations with Russia and Saudi Arabia (the mentioned countries have certain impacts on the internal developments of Azerbaijan) during the course of time. And in case of Iran it will lead to the deepening of the current issues.

And in Israel’s case its cooperation with Israel causes issues mainly inside the country. The thing is discussions on democracy or national identity are quite common in Israeli political and social life and in this context observations have been made by different Israeli and Jewish circles claiming that the foreign policy run by the Israeli authorities towards deepening its relations with such non-democratic countries as Azerbaijan imposes serious threats to the democracy of Israel.