ACNIS criticizes Azerbaijani president’s renewed threats of war
02.01.2010 11:53 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Center for National and International
Studies (ACNIS) Director Richard Giragosian issued a statement today
criticizing Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s renewed `threats of
war.’ In most countries, leaders usually address their people with a
traditional New Year’s message that seeks to convey a message of
cooperation, peace and prosperity. But in the case of Azerbaijan, this
New Year’s message for 2010 was one of war. Sadly, the militant
threats and aggressive rhetoric emanating from Baku was a disturbing
message for Yerevan. But it was also a warning to the international
community that peace and security in the South Caucasus will not be a
certainty for 2010.

In the words of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, his New Year’s
message for the coming year was a stark warning that `Azerbaijan is
strengthening its military potential,’ which he vowed was `increasing
day by day’ and was `being strengthened in terms of weapons and
equipment.’ Further explaining the deeper meaning behind such
threatening language, the Azerbaijani leader warned that Baku has the
`military effectiveness’ and will `use all our means to solve the
Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno Karabagh conflict.’

Such militant words of war are still empty threats, however, as the
exaggerated boasts of Azerbaijan’s military strength remain remote
from the reality of the poor state of readiness and inferior
capability of the Azerbaijani armed forces. But the bellicose warnings
and threats by the Azerbaijani leadership only threaten regional
security and stability, an even more disturbing fact in the wake of
the war in Georgia in August 2008. Clearly, Azerbaijan has failed to
learn the primary lesson from the Georgia war – that there is no
military solution to essentially political problems. And for Nagorno
Karabagh, Azerbaijan’s bluff and bluster only reaffirms the
impossibility of any return to Azerbaijani control.
Ironically, such threats from Azerbaijan only reveal their lack of
sincerity and questionable commitment to international mediation
efforts seeking a negotiated resolution of the Nagorno Karabagh
conflict. Such rhetoric also demonstrates the dubious and futile
nature of Turkey’s demands for concessions from Armenia over Karabagh.

Thus, with the start of a new year, the South Caucasus deserves real
diplomacy rather than a reliance on a war of words in which Azerbaijan
only recycles the same threats of war over Karabagh. Sadly, for the
people of the South Caucasus, 2010 promises to be yet another year of
challenges and threats to lasting stability and security in the
region.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress