Fearing renewed Azerbaijani aggression, Armenian government officials have scrambled in the last few days to shore up international diplomatic support. At the same time, a newly published survey deems Armenia to be the safest country in Eurasia.

A peace treaty to end over 35 years of conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan is ostensibly ready for signing. But since the mid-March announcement that the treaty text had been finalized, a steady stream of belligerent rhetoric has flowed out of Baku, as Ilham Aliyev’s administration apparently presses for additional advantages outside the pact’s provisions.

Over the past week, Armenia has engaged all regional powers except Turkey, striving to bolster support for the country’s sovereignty. Top on the Armenian diplomatic agenda has been smoothing over relations with Russia. Bilateral ties had been marked by increasing rancor since Azerbaijan’s reconquest of Nagorno-Karabakh in the fall of 2023, underscored by Yerevan’s efforts during the last year to break free of the Kremlin’s magnetic field and reset its geopolitical compass to point West. 

Armenia appears to have succeeded in convincing the Kremlin that Russia will retain its geopolitical standing in the Caucasus. Pretending as though there had never been any tension in the relationship, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on March 27 noted that Moscow has “always had excellent ties with Armenia. In the historical context, it could not be otherwise. …  Our geography, destiny and history prescribe developing relations.” 

At the same briefing, Zakharova emphasized that Yerevan’s recent efforts to seek EU membership are “not mutually acceptable” with the country’s existing participation in the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union.

Elsewhere on March 27, the Arminfo news agency reported that the US envoy to Armenia, Kristina Kvien, visited Syunik Province, which is the area where Azerbaijan wants to establish a land corridor with extraterritorial rights connecting the Azerbaijani mainland to the Nakhchivan exclave. Armenia’s reluctance to grant extraterritoriality to Baku is seen as one of several sticking points holding up the signing of the peace treaty.

The Arminfo report said Kvien reaffirmed “US support for Armenia’s territorial integrity and for peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan.” On March 25, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had a brief discussion with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, during which the two agreed that “escalation of any form in the South Caucasus is unacceptable,” according to a State Department statement.

Earlier Pashinyan met March 25 in Yerevan with the Iranian Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araghchi, who later told journalists that Iran “backs the territorial integrity of countries” and that “regional issues should be resolved within the region, through dialogue and diplomacy, and without resorting to force.”

The perceived threat hovering over Armenia’s international relations contrasts sharply with the domestic conditions. A survey on public perceptions about crime and safety in 147 countries around the world ranked Armenia as the globe’s 8th safest country. The rankings were published by Numbeo, which bills itself as the “world’s largest database of user contributed data about cities and countries worldwide.” 

Other Eurasian states ranking in the Top 30 safest countries were Georgia and Uzbekistan. Azerbaijan was 33rd; Kazakhstan 71st; and Kyrgyzstan 109th. Tajikistan and Turkmenistan were not included in the survey.

Almost 78 percent of individuals surveyed reported feeling safe walking alone on the streets of the Armenian capital Yerevan at night, while only 37 percent in Bishkek felt the same.