ArmInfo. The extradition of blog writer Alexander Lapshin creates a new space for isolation of Artsakh by Azerbaijan, Stepan Safaryan, Head of the Armenian Institute of International and Security Affairs, has told ArmInfo.
"Yerevan and Stepanakert do not yet realize the possible political consequences of Minsk's extradition of Lapshin to Baku. Like on 2 April 2016, the authorities of Armenia and Artsakh proved unprepared for such a scenario; therefore they lost the first battle. In such cases, the Armenian Foreign Ministry must invite the Belarusian ambassador and file a note of protest to him," he says.
Safaryan stresses that Serzh Sargsyan and his Republican Party of Armenia, we well as Lukashenko's business partner Gagik Tsarukyan give higher priority to their election campaign today. And even under such conditions, he says, the major part of people will all the same vote for Sargsyan and Tsarukyan, noting that the "rest of the candidates are even worse".
He thinks that Azerbaijan is gradually strengthening its positions. In this light, the analyst recalled that during Robert Kocharyan's presidency, the Armenian Foreign Ministry headed by Vartan Oskanian was covertly lobbying the interests of Lukashenko in Europe at the latter's request. And today Lukashenko gave them a slap, Safaryan notes.
To note, the Russian-Israeli blog writer Alexander Lapshin was detained in Minsk at the request of Azerbaijan. On Feb 8, he was extradited to Baku and from the airport he was taken handcuffed by the employees of the Azeri National Security Ministry. The day before the Supreme Court of Belarus declared Lapshin's extradition to Azerbaijan lawful.