On June 30, Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan said that Armenia is discussing the issues related to Berdzor and Aghavno with their partners in Artsakh. “We still have time to find solutions for the road and for the residents. We still have about 1.5 years. We will work with the Artsakh government and find solutions.” However, on August 5, it became clear that the residents of Aghavno, Nerkin Sus, and Berdzor should be evacuated from Kashatagh by August 25. The guest of Aravot’s “Areresum (Confrontation)” program, former head of the Military Institute of the Ministry of Defense, colonel, and candidate of political sciences Aleksan Minasyan, addressing the question of why the term was so shortened, specifically said that Azerbaijan speaks from the position of strength. “They clearly feel their advantage. They feel that they are far superior to us in terms of weapons. And we, who should have prepared with small detachments to take action behind them, are not doing so.”
Significant sections of high-voltage lines, communication cables, and gas pipelines going to Artsakh will remain under the control of Azerbaijan for the time being. What is the explanation for the fact that the construction of new electricity and communication lines and a gas pipeline to Artsakh did not start earlier and the Armenian side once again faced the fact? Vova Vartanov, the founder of the military-patriotic organization The Art of Staying Alive, the commander of the volunteer battalion VOMA, and the other guest of the “Areresum” program, said, “It seems to me that all of this is explained by the approach of our people to leave it to their own devices: whatever will happen will happen. When I say something like this, they retort that the authorities… the people in power are not the same people… They are the same as this consumer society, which is absolutely not preparing for large-scale military operations, which is not preparing to protect its family.”
Deputies of the Civil Contract faction criticized the Russian peacekeepers for this latest tension, noting that according to the November 9 announcement, the Lachin Corridor is solely under the responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping mission, and that military force must ensure peace and stability in its area of responsibility in accordance with its mandate. However, if we take into account that the Azerbaijanis used drones again, does the tripartite statement say that the peacekeepers can have and use anti-aircraft defense systems? Aleksan Minasyan said that peacekeepers can use all kinds of weapons if they are defined by agreements. Azerbaijan did not sign the mandate of the peacekeepers, and this means that they do not have a mandate to participate in military operations, but have an exclusively stabilizing military-political significance. “And we know that there are not so many Russian troops in that area that they can provide 100 percent control,” the former head of the Military Institute of the Ministry of Defense also mentioned. He added that we have no right to rely only on peacekeepers.
However, there are suggestions that the peacekeeping mission should be changed and multinational forces should be deployed in Artsakh. Vova Vartanov believes that the absence of collisions and incidents is not guaranteed even in that case. “The peacekeepers put you in a comfort zone, giving you a false sense of security that they will protect you. I do not have enough fingers; many international examples can be cited when peacekeepers in the heart of Europe did not protect Serbian Krajina, Bosnian Muslims… It is not possible to protect a country or a nation with peacekeeping forces.” He added, “And whether the peacekeepers will be Dutch, from Burundi or from Upper Volta, it makes no difference to me. They come here to protect their interests.”
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Anna Israyelyan
