By Vasif Huseynov

Especially after the Second Karabakh War, several factors triggered the emergence of Greece-Cyprus-Armenia trilateral cooperation ideas. First of all, Armenia strived to create a counter-force format against the Azerbaijan-Türkiye and Azerbaijan-Türkiye-Pakistan cooperation platforms, as well as against the tripartite cooperation platforms established jointly by Azerbaijan and Türkiye with many other countries. Armenia’s intention was to gather countries known for their unfriendly actions against Türkiye in a bid to use their joint power against Baku and Ankara. This factor can be considered to be one of the first important ones.

As for another factor, as I learned from various diplomatic sources, the Armenian diaspora has had and continues to have a certain impact on Greek foreign policy. However, the influence of the Armenian diaspora caused dissatisfaction among several Greek experts, who believe that Athens’ support for Yerevan contradicts Greece’s national interests. Here, the main point contradicting Greece’s national interests is that being a tool for Armenia’s games, Greece overshadows its cooperation with Azerbaijan in various areas, especially in the energy sector, as well as undermines the realization of joint initiatives.

In addition, Armenia undoubtedly aims to use its close relations with both Greece and Cyprus – the two EU members – to negatively affect the Azerbaijan-EU cooperation. To that end, Armenia keeps doing everything possible to further deepen its trilateral cooperation platform with Greece and Cyprus and even to raise it to the military cooperation level. In conclusion, all this runs contrary to Greece’s messages of friendship and cooperation with Azerbaijan, and, undoubtedly, will harm relations between the two countries.

Vasif Huseynov, head of department at the Baku-based Center of Analysis of International Relations (AIR Center), exclusively for News.Az