Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Jan 13 2005
Military action possible if diplomacy fails – political analyst
Azerbaijan has considerably stepped up its diplomacy in 2004 in the
area of settling the Upper Garabagh conflict, Director of the Center
for Political Innovations and Technologies Mubariz Ahmadoglu told
AssA-Irada. This was manifested both in peace talks and building the
army.
`Since the Azerbaijani President pays greater attention to
strengthening the military, this process is carried out
purposefully.’
The political analyst continued that if no diplomatic success is
achieved early in 2005 and Armenia does not comply with Azerbaijan’s
demands, the latter will choose the military action alternative.
`If the peace talks assume a practical nature, this could be
considered as initial success which will allow continuing the
negotiations. Otherwise, the diplomacy will weaken, which in turn,
will lead to stepping up the military process.’
Although early last year Armenia rejected the `from a scratch’ and
`stage-
by-stage’ options of conflict resolution, as the year drew to an end
this country started to favor the latter alternative. It is not by
mere chance that late last year, an expert on the `stage-by-stage’
conflict settlement Baiburdyan, who earlier headed a department at
the Armenian Foreign Ministry, was appointed deputy foreign minister.
This shows that Armenia, under pressure from the international
community and Azerbaijan’s active diplomacy, is making changes to its
policy.*