On May 13, on a visit to Yerevan, French President Francois Hollande invited the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to Paris to conduct negotiations on Karabakh issue. On May 24, when delivering a speech at the Carnegie Foundation, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair James Warlick “refreshed” the so-called “Madrid” principles, saying that his speech expresses the U.S. State Department’s point of view. Two of the three co-chair countries showed apparent activeness, which, of course, could not be liked by the third country, Russia, which is traditionally considered to be the “watcher” of this region. The situation sharply exacerbated on Armenia-Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh -Azerbaijan Contact Line since mid-May.
In these two and a half months, the relations between Russia and the West have been sharply declined: Malaysia plane wreck, sanctions, threats and accusations. In the same period, the Azerbaijani authorities have started a “witch hunt” against the opponents, dissidents and civil society representatives, and received sharp criticism by the United States, and the Ambassador Morningstar has hinted that he is not going to turn a blind eye on Azerbaijan’s stance neither inside the country, nor on Karabakh issue.
During the recent escalation of border incidents, the Foreign Minister Nalbandyan announced that Armenia is not going to give up on joining the Eurasian Union, and the two countries’ presidents agreed to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi. I do not rule out the possibility that the latter will suggest to deploy peacekeepers on the Contact Line. Thus, Russia has achieved its goal. Paris came to replace Sochi, the “Madrid principles” were again forgotten, Armenia reaffirmed its “Eurasianism”. However, people in several dozens of Armenian and Azerbaijani families are now mourning.
A naive question. Is it possible to achieve political objectives without killing? It seems to me possible, if the person setting the goals does not have cannibal traditions, but has enough economic and technological leverages to exert influence on the parties.
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But the parties should not act in the role of a mere object. In this regard, replying on Azerbaijan, I think, is not realistic. Because of oil, the country leadership has lost the sense of reality, and tends to crazy adventures. Fortunately, our army is doing its job well and withstands the encroachments. And what about the diplomacy? Here, I think we have a problem. In my understanding, diplomacy is the same military service, which aims at preventing the victims. So far, it has not succeeded.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
