“Let us state that the document does not contain anything about Artsakh. There is nothing about the captives or our security guarantees, but there is mention of opening roads, economic cooperation, and new perspectives to open an era of peace with Azerbaijan,” Anzhela Elibegova, an expert on Azerbaijan, stated during a press conference on November 30 at the Hayeli press club referring to the joint statement signed between the Prime Minister of Armenia and the Presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan in Sochi. According to her, the document discusses the acceleration of the process of opening communications, economic projects, and many new initiatives.
However, there is literally nothing concerning Armenia. There is no talk of priorities in the interests of Armenia. She stated that Azerbaijan continues to take people captive because it understands that there is no resistance from the Armenian side, except for the legal field where human rights activists work, and there is no mass pressure on Azerbaijan by the state.
Anzhela Elibegova noted that Azerbaijan carried out lobbying campaigns to obtain maps of minefields, which yielded results, but Armenia does not do the same. She explained, “The provision on prisoners- everyone in exchange for everyone- should have been implemented a year ago, but it was not. Instead, they left it all aside and opened the communications, which contain provisions that are no less dangerous for us. We do not have any security guarantee with this document given by Azerbaijan that they will withdraw from the 41 km that they came forward or that they guarantee they will not go to provocations again in the future. There is vague wording that the November 9 document should be implemented consistently, but we see that these provisions are being violated consistently. We do not discuss the issue of Artsakh, we discuss the issue of Syunik. Why don’t we drum up the status issue in all possible structures and use all possible mechanisms?”
Read also
Anzhela Elibegova warned that if the Armenian authorities continue to make concessions to Azerbaijan, there are no red lines for concessions if no one hinders it. Therefore, our task is to hinder Azerbaijan.
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
