The expert on Iranian studies talking about the reactions in Azerbaijan regarding the tripartite meeting in St. Petersburg
“The interest of the public, political and expert circles in the Republic of Azerbaijan in the meeting of the presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijani and Russian in St. Petersburg was significantly smaller compared to the meeting in Vienna about a month ago,” said Artyom Tonoyan, the expert on Iranian studies in an interview with “Aravot.”
As he describes, “The public reactions in Azerbaijan before and after the St. Petersburg meeting suggest that the citizens did not have any expectations from the tripartite meeting. After the meeting in Vienna, Aliyev’s rating in the country sharply dropped while the Azerbaijani society described the Vienna meeting as “selling of blood” of the deceased in the four-day war. The St. Petersburg meeting did not change anything in the opinion formed about Aliyev in his own community. In addition to the fact that the Azerbaijani society had no expectations from this meeting, there was a certain biased attitude, according to which as long as the meeting was held in Moscow by the initiative of the Russian side, nothing positive could be expected from this meeting for Azerbaijan, as Russians never make moves in favor of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijanis were particularly saddened by their president’s smiling face, which was assessed as vilifying the memory of the soldiers killed in this four-day war.” Referring to the assessments of the political circles of Azerbaijan regarding the meeting in St. Petersburg, Artyom Tonoyan noted, “No matter who strange it sounds, the oppositionists of the Republic of Azerbaijan have almost not expressed an opinion in connection with this meeting. Ali Karimli (Head of the Azerbaijani Popular Front party), Jamil Hasanli (representing the “National Council”) and Arif Hajili (Leader of Equality Party (Müsavat)), unlike the Vienna meeting when they were actively commenting it and expressing an attitude, this time, they are strangely silent.”
As for the reactions of the Azerbaijani experts circles, the expert on Iranian studies said, “Summarizing all, we can say that they do not differ from the previous assessments. The Azerbaijani experts have assessed the St. Petersburg tripartite meeting as a subsequent example of demonstrating Russia’s own power by the “status of a controller of the situation in the Caucasus””.
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LUIZA SUKIASYAN
“Aravot”
