Domestic escalation to lead to external escalation soon - expert 

ArmInfo.Armenia's fate is not being decided in Moscow, Washington, Brussels, or Paris; it is being decided in Yerevan. Vahe Hovhannisyan, a member of the Alternative Projects group, writes about this in his article, "Why is the Atmosphere in Armenia Radicalizing?"

According to him, the greatest danger lies in the belief in Yerevan  that Armenia's fate will be decided in some other capital. Meanwhile,  Armenia's fate is being decided in Yerevan. June 7 is exclusively an  internal Armenian election.

"If we think differently, then ultimately everything will be decided  in Baku. Unfortunately, in the pre- election period, we still do not  have a proper understanding of this most important idea. We are  recording a significant escalation within the country. We are going  down the path of internal escalation. The idea of internal  solidarity, which was the leading position of the "Prosperous  Armenia" party's "Proposal for Armenia" program, has encountered a  barrage of aggression and threats from one person. What does Armenia  get? What do we get? Nobody gets anything. We also got an escalation  on the external border, in this case, in relations with Russia. Was  it worth playing Zelensky's game that many sectors of our economy are  under real risk of bankruptcy? Zelensky was in Baku before coming to  Yerevan. But he did not make provocative anti-Russian statements  there. He did not say a word. He believed that provocations in  Azerbaijan are unacceptable, Azerbaijan is not that kind of country,  but in Armenia it is possible. Why did he do this? Let's think about  it. By the way, in the Azerbaijani "The press is circulating  information about the possible extradition of Ruben Vardanyan to  Ukraine, allegedly for financing anti-Ukrainian activities in  Donbas," the political scientist stated, noting at the same time that  he doesn't know whether this is true or a hoax.

Vahe Hovhannisyan noted that there is no rational answer to the  question of why the government is radicalizing the atmosphere. "Now  is not the best time for a government to implement various reforms.   Why is a programmatic, albeit heated, debate-driven atmosphere  turning into radicalization? This issue should be discussed within  the government itself. No one will benefit from it. Internal  escalation, one way or another, will very quickly lead to external  escalation," the political scientist concluded.