With border escalation, Moscow is trying to make the West understand something.
Recently, in the evening hours, the Azerbaijani side is keeping the villages bordering with Tavush marz under the burst of machine-gun fire. The RA Defense Ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan said that 20 villages were in the target of the machine-gun fire. The Defense Ministry estimated the situation quite serious and tense. On September 1, Azerbaijani Armed forces shelled the defensive position located near the Holy Mother Church of the village Voskepar from the positions of Gazakh region. On September 2, the Voskepar-Baghanis bypass highway was shelled. Two village residents of Voskepar village who were passing by this highway by car miraculously survived the grenade attack.
“One of the peculiarities of the recent tension in the contact line is that the enemy has begun using mortars. Of course, they do not remain unanswered, they are punished. Often, we create adequate restraint conditions for preventive measures. The enemy does not achieve success, therefore, it uses far—reaching measures,” noted Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan, assuring that the situation on the border is under control.
The tension in the contact line did not lessen on the days of Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov’s visit to Baku, but in fact further intensified. Of course, a situation has been created long ago when Azerbaijan says one thing at the negotiating table or with the representatives of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries and quite another thing at the contact line. But Lavrov’s recent visit took place in a remarkable atmosphere of information. First, a few days ago, Azerbaijani media citing the “Zvezda” TV company spread out rumors that Russia is planning to build a new military base in Azerbaijan instead of the abandoned Gabala radar station. According to the information, in 2017, Azerbaijan will begin the construction of Voronezh radar station. In other words, the Russian-Azerbaijani cooperation is likely to reach another level.
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In addition, Lavrov’s visit to Baku became known at the last moment, just three days prior to arriving in Azerbaijan, on August 28. One day before the visit, Lavrov had a telephone conversation with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. To the point, on August 28, when it became known that Lavrov will leave for Baku, NKR Defense Ministry reported that the rival initiated a regular attempt of intelligence-subversive penetration in the direction of the eastern part of the contact-line of Karabakh and Azerbaijani antagonistic armed forces.
What has Lavrov said in Baku? “Russia and Azerbaijan are strategic partners in the South Caucasus and the Caspian Region. On the whole, we have very close positions on some of the most pressing issues in international relations. I maintain close contact with my colleague, Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov, and we discuss our cooperation in the UN, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and on other international platforms. We value the ongoing inter-parliamentary cooperation, which is taking place at a very high level. We are also thankful to the Azerbaijani side for the excellent organization of the visit of three ships from the Caspian Flotilla to Baku in August 2015,” he said.
As for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, while the Azerbaijani side was firing mortars in the contact line in the direction of Armenian border villages, Lavrov was expressing hope in Baku that in the future it will be possible to provide some progress in the Karabakh settlement. “I highly appreciate this opportunity to meet with you to discuss our bilateral relations and the situation in the region, as well as the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement. The latter is the issue on which we working closely with you and the Presidents of Armenia and Russia, as well as the co-chairing countries trying to move towards a generally acceptable common denominator. I hope we will make progress,” said Lavrov prior to meeting with Aliyev, emphasizing that both political and economic relations between Azerbaijan and Russia in recent years are getting deeper.
Pay attention that there is no single word about the unacceptability of tension in the contact line. Of course, it would be naive to think that Lavrov would publicly urge Baku to cease the subversive policy in the contact line, but at least, in a diplomatic language, he could have said a standard sentence that he “urged the parties to lessen the tension in the contact line”. While, official Moscow is obligated to somehow react the border escalations, because, in addition to being an OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing country, Armenia and Russia are the CIS and CSTO members, and in the event of aggression against the borders of Armenia, Russia as a partner country is obligated to react. In addition, Russia is selling weapons to Azerbaijan and if desired, it could come to an agreement with Baku not to use these weapons in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, but it is not done too.
Maybe the naive would say that maybe Lavrov was unaware of the tension in the contact line on the days of his visit. Such “unawareness” can be allowed by Russian Ambassador to Armenia Ivan Volinkin but not by the Foreign Minister, who devotes a paragraph in his speech to the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. “I see no consistency connected with recent intensification in the conflict zone of Nagorno-Karabakh and I cannot say which are the causes, said Volinkin in the interview with Armenpress, adding occasionally tension rises on the contact line of the Karabakh conflict zone.
Lavrov’s visit to Baku singles out by the expression of warm Azerbaijani-Russian stories. Lavrov spoke out with Ilham Aliyev and told that Vladimir Putin often remembers his visit to Baku in June. The matter is about Putin’s visit to attend the opening ceremony of the first European Games. “Azerbaijan highly appreciates this fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Baku on 12 June to attend the opening ceremony of the European Games, when your country was marking a national holiday – Russia’s Day. It was really a very significant step and a vivid manifestation of our relations at a high level.
In the meantime, your partner, our foreign minister arrived in Moscow and now you are in Baku. All of this is also an evidence of the dynamic and effective development of bilateral relations,” emphasized Aliyev in his turn. An impression is left that Moscow and Baku are not so against keeping the contact line intensified, and this means that at times exacerbating the situation, Moscow and Baku want to make the West understand, where, as you know, there is a very tough approach with regard to the possibility of renewed hostilities of the Karabakh conflict.
As to what Baku expects from the world, it is clear – a support in the pro-Azerbaijani solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. And what does Moscow seek the West to understand by demonstrating the tension in Karabakh zone? In the context of this question, Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova’s statement 3 days prior to Lavrov’s visit to Baku was very remarkable, saying that the disagreement between Russia and the West should not affect the work of the OSCE Minsk Group on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement. “We hope that Russia’s disagreement with any state, which emerges not by our fault will not affect the works of the OSCE Minsk Group, in which the Russian Federation and the United States are particularly included,” said Zakharova, adding that no issue or problem can be caused by the RF. “We are part of this format and take our responsibilities seriously. We understand the seriousness of the agenda of this group.”
Russia, which nowadays has serious problems with the West in all platforms, perhaps wishes to show its influence on the Karabakh platform, seeking to once again receive from the West the OK of reckoning and agreeing with it as a major player in the South Caucasus. With intensifications in the Karabakh contact line, Moscow seems to remind about itself, more precisely, about the dangerous “mine” that it can blow up in the South Caucasus.
Emma GABRIELYAN,
“Aravot” daily
