Recently, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev once again announced that the Artsakh issue is closed. Moreover, there is no unit in Azerbaijan called Nagorno-Karabakh, and it is useless to speak about its status at all. He even jeered that if there are politicians who wish to give the Armenians in Azerbaijan some sort of status, he wouldn’t be against it; those politicians can find somewhere nice in their countries for those people and bestow self-governance or even independence upon them. But that will not happen in Azerbaijan.
It’s clear that this is nothing but strengthening his military victory on a political and especially international arena. If we eliminate the emotional aspect, then we must accept that any leader of any country must try to do the same after a military victory. But another question is more important: do the influential powers care about whether or not Armenians will continue to live in the 3.3 thousand km of Artsakh that remains? (I think it is clear that Armenians would be deported from this area if it falls under Azerbaijani control). No one is seriously concerned about this issue besides Russia. Russia, in its turn, can sell that small (on a global political level) piece of land with its population to Turkey for a high price, and I think that Turkey is willing to pay that price. By “price,” I do not only mean monetarily; the transaction can be, for example, in the form of serious concessions in Syria. The final eviction of Armenians from Artsakh (something that has not been successful over the centuries) is a historical and military issue for Turkey, for which that country will take those steps.
And another question: taking all of this into consideration, what is the Armenian side’s position? Our Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Prime Minister sometimes make statements that they do not agree with claims that the issue is closed, that there needs to be negotiations, that Artsakh’s status needs to be determined, etc. But my impression is that they are simply making those statements according to the issues of the day, but in reality, our government has come to terms with the de-facto situation, and it is focused only on one issue: how it can use tricks to stay in power.
But that is not the worst part. The tragedy is that the majority of Armenians have already come to terms with their defeat. People do not ask me on the streets, “What happened to that portion of our homeland where Armenians have been living for at least three thousand years?” Instead, they ask me, “Who will win- Kocharyan or Nikol?”
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Aram Abrahamyan
