ANALYSIS: AZERI PRESIDENT MAKES CLAIMS ON "HISTORICALLY AZERI" YEREVAN ALONG WITH NAGORNO KARABAKH
Aris Ghazinyan

ArmeniaNow reporter
14.05.10

Aliyev claims that the Armenian state was established on historically
Azeri lands.

Analysis: Azeri President makes claims on "historically Azeri"
Yerevan along with Nagorno Karabakh

>From During the
second Russian-Persian war, Yerevan was captured [4][11][12] by
Russian troops under general Ivan Paskevich on 1 October 1827. It
was formally ceded by the Persians in 1828, following the Treaty
of Turkmenchay. Tsarist Russia sponsored Armenian resettlement from
Persia and Turkey; by the turn of the twentieth century, Yerevan’s…

Since early this year Azeri authorities have started shifting their
focus in Armenian-Azeri relations from Karabakh to the historic past
of Armenia’s capital Yerevan.

No doubt, the issue of Nagorno Karabakh continues holding top positions
in the dispute, however, one can’t help noticing the increasing
tendency of talks in Baku now claiming that the Armenian capital
"belongs to Azerbaijan".

In February, the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan political party presented
a book titled "Irevan khanate" which "proved" that Yerevan belongs
to Azerbaijan.

Deputy chairman of the party Ali Ahmedov stressed during the
presentation that "the book contains valid proofs of Azerbaijani
president Ilham Aliyev’s statement that the capital of Armenia
Yerevan is an Azeri land; it is also a response to his appeal not to
forget about temporarily lost Azeri lands" (as reported by Azeri news
agency Day.az).

Following this, in April, other Azeri news agencies published Aliyev’s
statement.

"Armenians have a state, however, that state was established on
historically Azeri lands. It is common knowledge. Immediately after
proclaiming its independence in 1918 the Democratic Republic of
Azerbaijan made a decision to give Irevan to Armenia as their capital,"
Open.Az cites the president.

Statements such as this cannot be accidental. Azerbaijan’s purpose of
doing so is to demonstrate to the international community the futility
of any effort aimed at granting independence to Nagorno Karabakh.

"The artificial shift of stresses is aimed at demonstrating to the
world that Baku can somehow tolerate Armenia’s existence even if on
Azeri lands, with a historically Azeri city as its capital, however it
has no intentions of reconciling to Nagorno Karabakh’s independence,"
says political analyst Garegin Gabriyelyan. "That’s the reason why
it keeps showing readiness to reclaim Karabakh at any cost."

The unexpected replication of such statements by Azeri ambassadors
testifies the approbation of a new approach to the Karabakh issue. On
May 9 Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Russia, composer Polad Bulbuloglu
made bellicose statements.

And on May 13, Mikail Rahimov, chairman of the Supreme Majlis of the
United People’s Front Party of Azerbaijan, stated that "the world
community has to pressure Armenia to force that aggressor-state to
return the occupied lands to Azerbaijan. And if that doesn’t happen
in the nearest future, the Karabakh issue will be solved by means of
a war".

No less than thirty times within this year only has the Azeri president
officially stated about the possibility of resuming hostilities and
a few times about "Irivan and Zangezur belonging to Azerbaijan".

These tactical alterations related to the settlement of the Karabakh
issue taken up by Azerbaijan did not pass unnoticed by the Armenian
side, which, in its turn, made a number of principally new statements.

For the first time in the past 16 years NKR representative have
stated that the war Baku so frequently speaks about is, actually,
in Armenia’s interests.

NKR Defense Minister, Lieutenant General Movses Hakobyan stated that
"resumption of the war is not in Azerbaijan’s interests and is,
on the contrary, favorable for us, because we can easily carry out
the task we have set. I think, in that case we will once and for all
solve the Karabakh-Azerbaijan conflict. "

Never before has that thought been officially voiced, and it is quite
possible, that new statements from the Armenian side will follow soon.

It seems we will hear some other new statements in the nearest future
as well.