According to political scientist Armen Vardanyan, Azerbaijan wants a peace agreement to be signed, according to which Armenia will recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, border demarcation and delimitation will be carried out, and the Karabakh issue will be forgotten. “On the one hand, they are negotiating to extract concessions from Armenia, and on the other hand, they are constantly firing, provoking border incidents in order to put various pressures on Armenia and achieve what they want,” political scientist Armen Vardanyan said in response to Aravot’s question about the recent border incidents on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, if they have the goal of extracting new concessions from Armenia. According to him, this is not a new practice by Azerbaijan. We asked if, in that case, he sees a danger that the border incidents will become more intense, the political scientist answered, “Everything can be expected from Azerbaijan. Of course, they can become more intense. Nothing should be excluded.”
On July 7, at around 4:15 p.m., the units of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces opened fire from various, including large-caliber rifles, at the Armenian combat positions located in the western part of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, specifically in the Yelpin village of the Vayots Dzor region, as well as also in the direction of the road leading to the village, as a result of which a civilian car was damaged. According to the RA Ministry of Defense, on July 4, around 9:15 p.m., units of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces opened fire from various, including large-caliber, rifle weapons, located in the western part of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, specifically in the Armenian village of Khachik in the Vayots Dzor region in the direction of the combat positions, as well as the road leading to the village, as a result of which the car of the community leader was damaged.
In response to our statement that Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov announced a day ago that there is no progress in the peace treaty negotiations with Armenia, Armen Vardanyan replied to the question whether the border incidents and this statement are related. “Of course, they are interconnected. They are not doing anything like that, it is not excluded that in other parts of the Armenian-Azerbaijani contact line and in Artsakh they will provoke new incidents and go to new provocations. Azerbaijan is trying in every possible way to put pressure on Armenia, including by inciting border shootings and incidents.”
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In response to the question about what worries them, as Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has stated that he considers the meeting of RA NA Deputy Speaker Ruben Rubinyan and Ambassador Serdar Kilic positive, Armen Vardanyan replied, “They want to achieve what they want. Azerbaijan wants a peace agreement to be signed, according to which Armenia will recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, border demarcation and delimitation will be carried out, and the Karabakh issue will be forgotten. This is the idea of Azerbaijan, that is why it is putting pressure on Armenia so that Armenia goes to sign the peace treaty very quickly.”
We were interested in the fact that during the meeting of Ruben Rubinyan and Serdar Kilic, they reached an agreement to open the border between Armenia and Turkey for the citizens of 3rd countries and to carry out air transport between Turkey and Armenia and in the opposite direction, and whether “citizens of a third country” means Azerbaijanis first. Armen Vardanyan answered, “It is difficult to say. We still need to find out how they will come and enter Armenia, there are many questions that we don’t have the answers to.”
The political scientist answered the question: Are there no hidden dangers here? “There are always dangers, we just have to be able to neutralize the risks.” According to Armen Vardanyan, the situation with Berdzor is clear. In the statement of November 9, there is a clause related to Berdzor, but Aghavno’s fate is unknown. On this occasion, the political scientist said: “The issue of Aghavno village is painful. I hope that our government will be able to resolve the issue through negotiations, although Nikol Pashinyan says that he cannot resolve that issue either.” According to Armen Vardanyan, the residents of Aghavno may be resettled in other villages of Artsakh, although he hopes that this issue will be resolved, on the other hand, he considers it unlikely that Aghavno will remain under Armenian control.
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
