YEREVAN. – The US State Department proposal, which was made ahead of Saturday’s meeting in Bern between the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents, was not made out of the blue, said a senior official, with respect to the proposal about the sensitive devices to be installed on the border, and which records the incidents and shootings, Hraparak daily reported. 

‘“This was a yellow card to Azerbaijan. Moreover, the American side is well aware that Azerbaijan will not agree to that. But this is a tactical move to yank Azerbaijan away from Russia, to make it understood that ‘[Russian FM Sergei] Lavrov’s plan,’ the Russian promises about which the Azerbaijanis talk a lot recently, are an illusion.

‘“The American side is also very well—right from first hand—informed that Azerbaijan-Turkey relations are quite strained at this time, and it attempts to take the control of the Karabakh [peace] process into its hand, expecting a serious change in [Azerbaijan President Ilham] Aliyev’s demeanor, and a shift toward the West.

‘“Will these western expectations be brought to fruition from the upcoming meeting of the presidents? I don’t think so,’ our interlocutor concluded,” Hraparak wrote.