The South Caucasus is on its way to becoming a “new Ukraine” and Armenia a “new Mariupol", according to political analyst Stepan Danielyan.

“The collective West seeks to withdraw Russian peacekeepers and, at the next stage, the Russian military base from the South Caucasus and to reach deeper into Central Asia through Turkey,” he wrote on Facebook on Wednesday.

“Neither Russia nor Iran will allow this. As a result, the Caucasus is on its way to becoming a “new Ukraine” and Armenia a “new Mariupol" (Azerbaijan too).

“This is a desirable scenario for the West: to push for a big war involving Russia, Turkey and Iran in order to bring Turkey back under its control and to drag Russia and Iran into a bloody war,” Danielyan stated.

The analyst says that the UK has lifted the sanctions on supplies of some military technology to Turkey, thus starting to arm it.

Commenting on the Brussels meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders, he said it was not actually aimed at preparing a peace treaty between the two counters, but “provoking a big war”.

“They used similar techniques to instigate a war in Ukraine. The goal of the West is clear, as there are big interests. At the same time, the reckless steps of the Armenian authorities and the Armenian opposition (parliamentary and non-parliamentary), which contribute to all this by further aggravating the situation, are incomprehensible,” Danielyan said.