“Just announcing, including for international organizations that hurry up, our enemy made an attempt to attack us, violated the cease-fire … these statements may attract the international organizations for only 1-2 days. Ultimately, the problem of Karabakh and the borders of Armenia is not No. 1 problem. It would constantly be forgotten. Therefore, the policy of 1-2 days can never be effective. It would not give anything,” such opinion was expressed by a member of “Heritage”, expert for international relations, Styopa Safaryan, in the conversation with Aravot.am., referring to the tension on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Styopa Safaryan finds that there should be a lot more complex strategic steps to develop, which would alert the opponent and would not allow violating the ceasefire. “Starting from foreign policy up to official systems and diplomacy need serious purposefulness. Countering the opponent aimlessly, spontaneously, and in chaotic way, which had set forth very clear political goals, moreover, the border incidents also serve these objectives, would not happen. It should be countered by political means to keep the situation less tense and keep the opponent within certain limits. Let’s not go far. The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly is underway in Baku, which is attended by the Armenian delegation. Today, the Baku Declaration has been adopted, and we are having speeches about what Herodotus, Xenophon, etc. think about Armenian… If on these days ceasefire violations take place on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, it is not spoken about, the declaration does not include strongly accented clauses, which would impose respecting the international obligations, then what else do you want to happen? We have a non-equivalent policy. Inadequate to the realities, the regional developments and a non-friendly creating policy. Do you want to avoid occurrence of such cases?” Every time, after the act of subversion by Azerbaijan, the Armenian population follows the defense minister’s speech and tries to understand how he is quiet. Is there a possibility of resuming a war? Is the situation on the border tense or not? In this regard, Stepan Safaryan said, “I’m not saying that there is no basis for the resumption of the war. Thank God, there is not. The Defense Minister knows well that currently it is not there. But if we keep being engaged in Azerbaijan’s game in the same way, or in the game of other countries, then the prevention of these processes would not dependent on us. It would not be limited to only the defense forces. It is important that the enemy think that the border is not open, that there is a strong army standing on the border, that all its subversive activities are prevented, but we need to understand that there are steps that can be taken just to devaluate the purpose, which the enemy will ultimately put forth. Diplomacy has a very large arsenal. It is not that it is impossible to do anything. It’s another matter that there is nobody willing to do it and no one dealing with it. Dilettantism is widespread in all spheres.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
