Armenia suspends participation in Russia led CSTO military alliance

[Wiswylfen]

Its time for the democratic sphere to fill that void.

That would be somewhat difficult when the US and UK are fully in Aliyev's pocket because of the oil and gas connection from the Caspian to Europe. That is even more true now that Russia is no longer diversifying the supply.

Same with the oil and gas transit state of Turkey. Notice how France typically fills the void and supplies military equipment to the enemies of the US/UK axis, for example selling Rafales to Greece and now supplying weapons to Armenia. France and Germany were far more in favour of Russian-reliance than Turk-reliance, hence why they were slow to react to the Ukraine war.

Even if the West was still semifunctional there will be no consensus in favour of Armenia. In fact if anything the continental powers are now also more reliant on Azerbaijan instead of Russia, even the French help might not last forever.

Armenia made a disasterous move in trying to align with a West that increasingly has no coherent interest in its existence.

Most of this is true, but trying to align with the West is basically a last resort, not an option that Pashinyan actively chose. It has become apparent that, post-Ukraine, Russia has neither the ability nor the inclination to defend Armenia (and, no, this is not due to Armenian political leadership).

Pashinyan's big gamble has not actually been in courting the west, it has been in attempting a rapprochement with Turkey. That is sensible, but even in a best case scenario it is obviously going to be a long process.

You appear to be under the impression that Armenia's drift away from Russia began after the Ukraine war started, or at least Nagorno-Karabagh, that is completely wrong.

Instead it has everything to do with the 'Velvet Revolution' that Pashinyan led back in 2018 against Putin's puppet. From the very beginning Pashinyan's pitch was to move Armenia closer to the West and ending the endemic post-soviet corruption that is a key part of Putin's power network, just as much here as elsewhere. Yes it is true that he has been more conciliatory than the other revolutionaries and tried to keep Russia onside, but his whole schtick from 2018 has been effectively to ween Armenia off Putin's influence network. In case it hasn't been made clear over the last few years, Putin utterly despises what he sees as western-backed coups in his backyard.

The 2020 Nagorno-Karabagh war was a punishment beating on Armenia from Putin. He could have easily stopped Aliyev, especially with the Iranian's help, instead he wanted to send a message to Yerevan to ditch Pashinyan.

Of course the events of the last 2 years mean that even if he wanted to reign Aliyev in now, the ability to cool the conflict is largely out of Putin's hands.

Your commitment to being wrong is almost impressive. Of course, this is really nothing compared to your beliefs that Jeremy Corbyn is a communist, a French presidential approval rating is worth anything, Theresa May was part of a conspiracy to prevent Britain leaving the EU, Matthew Goodwin writes good articles, Social Grade is real, Tony Blair is a gay cross-dresser, Ireland is racist, Bexley is working-class, the 'Red Wall' consists of 'peripheral suburban sinkhole estates' that hate Labour, calling terrorists terrorists is racist, anyone who criticises Israel hates Israel, the Turkish election was rigged, the 'Western media' is trying to dehumanise Israelis, and Feltham is affluent.

[Wiswylfen]

Well you seem normal...

It's nice to have a stalker though.

Normality is when you post hysterical nonsense from twenty years ago about Tony Blair being a gay cross-dresser who went cottaging and by the name Miranda because a Conservative-supporting, pro-hunting drug addict says so. The more you post it, the more normal you are. Oh and when you accuse anyone who calls terrorists terrorists of being racist.

That your posts are so bad I remember them is not something to be particularly proud of.

[Wiswylfen]

Well you seem normal...

It's nice to have a stalker though.

Normality is when you post hysterical nonsense from twenty years ago about Tony Blair being a gay cross-dresser who went cottaging and by the name Miranda because a Conservative-supporting, pro-hunting drug addict says so. The more you post it, the more normal you are. Oh and when you accuse anyone who calls terrorists terrorists of being racist.

That your posts are so bad I remember them is not something to be particularly proud of.

Sir, this is a Wendy's.

Generally you *don't* use that one when your record of posting is the aforementioned hysterical nonsense, making absurd accusations of racism against everything and everyone, and freaking out when someone refers to owner-occupied middle-class suburbia as 'affluent' and then turning around and declaring Slough affluent.

But anyway that you are consistently wrong is, in fact, perfectly relevant in a thread where you are talking about things under the pretence of understanding them. Also more intellectually honest than you arguing against the idea that the Russian army was involved in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War (which is an interesting reading of icc's post).