International institutions are unable to make an appropriate assessment of the disgraceful parliamentary elections, as they are “bound” by Russia’s biased position on the issue, Manvel Sargsyan, an expert at the Armenian Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS), stated at a roundtable.

According to him, Russian experts made a biased assessment of the disgraceful elections in Azerbaijan by calling them free and fair. “Against this background, European agencies are unable to make a strictly impartial assessment of the Azerbaijani elections being afraid of making it ‘draw itself into Russia’s embrace’,” the expert said.

As regards the impact the Azerbaijani parliamentary elections may have on the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process, Sargsyan stressed that the Baku authoritarian regime will go on making warlike statements and may even try to put them into practice, whereas Yerevan’s inactivity may contribute to this. According to the expert, Azerbaijan’s military blackmail is the only way of keeping the world from recognizing Nagorno-Karabakh. Manvel Sargsya regards as groundless the forecasts about possible progress in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process after the OSCE Summit in Astana. “No progress will be registered in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace