“Azerbaijan’s behavior was predictable. It’s just that, unfortunately, as often happens, Azerbaijan acts one step ahead of the RA authorities,” stated political scientist Armen Vardanyan in a conversation with “Aravot,” referring to our question: was it foreseeable that Azerbaijan would show such behavior, an emerging in several directions in the sovereign territory of RA. From the night of March 29, the Azerbaijani side was deployed in new positions near the Armenian village of Tegh.
According to the bilateral agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan, on April 1 of this year, in the middle of Tegh and Aghavno villages, setting up new positions should have started. Still, the Azerbaijani side occupied favorable positions and started engineering work last night.
Armen Vardanyan mentioned that, unfortunately, our authorities could not foresee this move by Azerbaijan and get them to deploy in more convenient positions. “According to their agreement, the new route should have been operational from April 1, but they arrived two days ago and positioned themselves in suitable positions. Unfortunately, our government could not foresee this Azerbaijani step, so that they would be placed in a more favorable position. That is unfortunate because, for the umpteenth time, Azerbaijan takes steps sooner and confronts us directly with the facts. The RA government should have been positioned long ago, and our military defense department should have already placed positions in the appropriate places so that we would be in a better position than the Azerbaijani positions.
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We reminded the political scientist of the statement adopted by the CSTO Secretariat due to the extended consultation of the management staff at the organization’s headquarters. It is stated that the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and in the NK zone is fraught with severe instability. At the same time, it was emphasized at the meeting that the CSTO is ready to send a mission to the Armenian-Azerbaijani border to ensure Armenia’s security. We wondered what effect this statement could have, Armen Vardanyan answered. “I think the announcement is already late. The CSTO should first make a political statement, admit that aggression against RA was carried out, admit that the occupation of RA territories took place, and make the political assessment; then these observers should be deployed.”
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In our observation, to put it mildly, the response of the West is also not satisfactory and hopeful because in the announcement of the second Summit for Democracy held a few days ago, there is no mention of the blockade of the Lachin Corridor, the invasion of the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia by Azerbaijan and the condemnation of Azerbaijan, Armen Vardanyan responded like this.
“Actually, it was not surprising; I must also say that it is probably the omission of our diplomacy here. Our diplomacy did not work well. We should have worked better so that there was at least some mention of Azerbaijani actions, although it should also be understood that the main focus of that summit is more on Ukraine than on other countries.”
Continuing the policy topic conducted by the West, Armen Vardanyan recorded. “The factor of the West was great in stopping the aggression against Armenia in September last year. After Blinken’s call, Azerbaijan stopped the attack. But the topic of this summit was more focused on Ukraine, and maybe the expectations regarding RA were higher than there were. We must work to focus international attention on RA on all such platforms, and our diplomacy must work in this direction. I don’t know if he did any work or not; in any case, it is desirable that there should be announcements about Armenia at such events, even if it is just a few lines of text.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
“Aravot” daily, 01.04.2023
