Paul Goble
Staunton, July 22 – Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Mariya Zakharova has expressed Moscow’s displeasure that Yerevan, having agreed in November 2022 to the opening of a Russian consulate in Kapan, the capital of Armenia’s Syunik Oblast and allowed an advance party to begin work in September 2023 is dragging its feet about the opening of the consulate.
The issue is especially sensitive because Kapan is located at the eastern end of what Azerbaijanis refer to as the Zengezur corridor, which was supposed to be reopened to traffic, and because Iran already has a consulate there and Turkey is talking about opening one (svpressa.ru/politic/article/423442/).
Russia has a consulate general in Gyumri, next to its military base; but Armenia has a far larger diplomatic presence in the Russian Federation: consulates in St. Petersburg and Rostov, diplomatic offices in Novosibirsk and Vladikavkaz and six honorary consuls as well. Consequently, Moscow feels well within its rights to press its case on Kapkan.
But because Yerevan has been distancing itself from Russia, the Armenian authorities have apparently decided not to open a Russian consulate in Kapkan in the near future; and their decision, has made this issue of a consulate whose presence affects not only Armenia but Iran and Azerbaijan an extremely sensitive geopolitical one.
Moscow is thus trying to force the issue, the Svobodnaya Presssa commentary says, confident that it will eventually get its way especially given that the West very much wants the Syunik/Zengezur corridor to open and might even see a Russian presence as making that more likely and a useful balance to the spread of Iranian influence.
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