In an interview with Azerbaijani TV channels, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev again threatened, “Azerbaijan is closely following the army building in Armenia, both by themselves and their partners. I have openly stated that even if we see the slightest threat to our security, that threat will be eliminated immediately.” It is clear that by “partners” he means Russia. Aliyev also expressed his dissatisfaction with the state in a “direct text,” noting that Russian peacekeepers in Artsakh allow people (particularly French presidential candidate Valérie Pécresse) to “illegally enter” Karabakh, a zone of responsibility for peacekeepers.
Referring to the Karabakh issue, Aliyev insisted that Baku would continue to “thwart the OSCE Minsk Group’s attempts to deal with it. I do not know what the Minsk Group is doing. They must set their own agenda. I can say what they should not do: it should not deal with the Karabakh issue, because it has been resolved. We have solved it instead of them.” In short, an “era of peace” in all its beauty.
Aliyev, like any other politician, should be taken with reservations. In this case, it is necessary to soberly assess what was said to the internal audience, what was said to the Russian and Minsk Group co-chairs, and what was said about Armenia. But in my opinion, Aliyev has nothing special to say to Armenia, because the leadership of our country does not oppose his plans at all. Let me remind you that in his “clarification” following his December 24 interview, Prime Minister Pashinyan noted, “Taking into account these and several other important negotiation issues, I have insisted from the NA podium that before becoming my Prime Minister in 2018, Artsakh had lost both theoretical and practical opportunities to not be part of Azerbaijan due to the existing negotiation content and realities.” In this context, what is important is not that the Prime Minister puts the responsibility on himself and puts it entirely on the “former” (which, of course, is important from the point of view of internal political struggle), but the actual statement. According to him, Artsakh can not be part of Azerbaijan.
If that’s the case, what is Aliyev’s problem with Armenia? If the head of our state is ready to recognize Artsakh as a part of Azerbaijan, accept Azerbaijani conditions of demarcation and delimitation, and build a road for Azerbaijan and Turkey through the Syunik region, then we can assume that the main recipients of the Azerbaijani President’s messages are Russia and, in part, France and United States. And the meaning of those messages is a separate subject.
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Aram Abrahamyan
