Pashinyan will build a “fence” by drawing a border, and Aliyev says “we will stand where we find it convenient”
“Our expectation is that Russia will not arm Armenia,” “Russia will not arm Armenia, because there is no need for it,”
“This is our land… We are in our land. Lake Sev is ours, the other territories are also ours. We are back,” “We are standing where we need to be, and if we want to, we will stand where we find it convenient,” are some excerpts from the recent statements of the President of Azerbaijan.
And this is Nikol Pashinyan’s statement, which he recently voiced while introducing the newly-appointed Minister of Defense Arshak Karapetyan to the staff of the Ministry of Defense and the officer staff of the Armed Forces. “Having demarcated and delimited borders is almost the same as having a fence around one’s own country. And I continue to hold that position.” Although he also stated that since May 12th, the units of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces have crossed the Armenian border illegally, he noted, “Our position from the beginning was the following: As long as there is an opportunity to resolve the situation through diplomacy and politics, we will go that route.”
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In general, it seems that Armenia and Azerbaijan live in different realities. Of course, it is clear that the President of Azerbaijan, as always, boosts the propaganda, and what he states has reasons. Just the fact that nine months after the end of the 44-day war, Aliyev and his wife are still walking in military uniforms in the “captured” but uninhabited areas of Nagorno-Karabakh probably indicates that they do not really believe in the power of their “victory” and they still have fears.
If Aliyev continues to threaten Russia, then everything is not as smooth for Baku as they expected. All this is understandable. However, the difference between the vocabulary and the messages that Armenia and Azerbaijan exchange in public is very strange.
From whom do we expect peace?… With the leader of a country whose country’s subdivisions infiltrated our country’s sovereign territory 3 months ago and who states publicly, “We will stand where we want to?” With which state are we in such a hurry to have demarcated and delimited borders- a state with which we do not have diplomatic relations yet, with which we do not have a peace agreement yet, with a country whose leader makes public threats to our state on a weekly basis? In addition to all this, the situation on the border is tense. The situation is regularly aggravated, and the Armenian side has suffered casualties. In other words, Armenia continues to be in a semi-military situation. And in general, in this situation, the question even arises: why hasn’t martial law been declared?
Nine months have passed since the war, which was not too short to strengthen the army or to work effectively with Armenia’s partnering countries in terms of focusing on Azerbaijan’s ongoing belligerent policy. But this was not done either. If the Armenian government has promised to sign a peace agreement with Azerbaijan under certain conditions, our society must be clearly explained under what conditions, with what guarantees.
Therefore, in the conditions of the aggressive, belligerent policy of the Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem towards Armenia today, Armenia has to have one “fence” – a strong defense, which the current Armenian government obviously does not seek to organize.
Emma Gabrielyan
