[Sebouh Z Tashjian <[email protected]>: Azerbaijan’s pol

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From: Sebouh Z Tashjian <[email protected]>
Subject: Azerbaijan’s policy towards Armenia changes only for the worse
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PanARMENIAN.Net

Azerbaijan’s policy towards Armenia changes only for the worse

Chief order of the authorities to put out Armenia armed to the teeth
and ready to attack peaceful Azerbaijan is brilliantly carried
out. The only trouble is that no one, including authors of the
information themselves, believes these old tales any more.
15.01.2009 GMT+04:00

For the past 20 years Azerbaijan’s policy towards Armenia and the
Armenian nation has been deteriorating so that it couldn’t be
worse. It was exactly at such state of affairs that we entered into
2009. After the Azerbaijani President’s New Year’s address saying `we
won’t give in, we will return, etc.’ there began to circulate another
story on Russia’s selling Armenia weapons with a total cost of USD800
million ¦

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The matter is dealt with rather seriously, on the
level of Foreign Ministries of the two countries. The interesting
point is that in the neighbouring country there are politicians who
even came to the point of declaring that Russia has sold the weapons
not to Armenia but to a third country. It is incomprehensible however
to whom so much artillery could be sold through Armenia: to Iran,
Turkey or¦ Georgia? Here rather an interesting conclusion can be
made: through Armenia Russia delivers armaments to Turkey, which, in
its turn, passes them to Baku. And all this in addition to the weapons
that Turkey delivers to Azerbaijan in the framework of bilateral
agreements. Let us admit that all this looks rather absurd even to the
Agitation and Propaganda Department of Baku. And there is absolutely
no doubt that these are propagandistic tricks. Chief order of the
authorities to put out Armenia armed to the teeth and ready to attack
peaceful Azerbaijan is carried out brilliantly. The only trouble is
that no one, including authors of the information themselves, believes
these old stories any more.

It is quite explicable why such information should have appeared in
the heat of the «gas war» between Russia and Ukraine as
a result of which Europe remained gasless. Azerbaijan is eager to
become monopolist-supplier of gas into Europe that is why it warns
beforehand: `We are willing but Armenia may hinder’. So, if Europe
needs Azerbaijani gas, it will have to «put Armenia in her
place». And the place that Baku leaves for Armenia following
Turkic tradition is quite clear ` it is either a dessert or
death. However, Baku forgets an important thing: monopoly in energy
supplies sooner or later begins to glitch. No one can guarantee that
with gas transited through Turkey, problems will not occur. They may
occur and might be even more serious than the Ukrainian bargain over
the price and transit conditions.

But let us revert to the delivery of the mythical armaments. The
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry is inclined to disagree with any negative
answer from the Russian side. `The Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan
urges for extra explanation. Russian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Vasiliy
Istratov conveyed Tuesday to Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov the reply from the Russian Defense Ministry in response to
Azerbaijan’s inquiry about the alleged armament supply to Armenia from
the 102nd Russian military base in Gyumri. The reply did not satisfy
the Azerbaijani side and the Foreign Minister urges for more detailed
explanation of the fact,’ said Elhan Polukhov, Press attachй of
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, the Azeri press writes.

The Azerbaijani «Propaganda Ministry» seems to havconsidered everything
except for one important condition: there exist many international
agreements on armament. In the framework of the CFE (Conventional
Armed Forces in Europe) Treaty both Russia and Armenia are to inform
what, where and in what quantities they have. Any change in quantity
of this or that unit, or re-deployment must immediately be reported to
the OSCE headquarters in Vienna. Vienna has received no such
information, and at least on this account the transaction of USD800
million cannot be considered true. At any moment any of the CFE Treaty
signers can express desire to carry out inspection of treaty
fulfillment. So far no inspection has revealed violations. On the
contrary, the treaty is periodically violated by Azerbaijan which
actively purchases weapons from the Czech Republic and, particularly,
from the Ukraine ` armour equipment and long-range multiple launch
rocket systems `Smerch’. The information that Baku is actively
renewing its military equipment is a well-known fact in the UN, where
expert-countries annually deliver information on new transactions. But
here Azerbaijan contrives to ascribe everything to Armenia by
attributing its armament to Yerevan and misleading both its citizens
and viewers of news sites. There is no need to always respond to the
moves of the «Propaganda Ministry», since in this way
Armenia puts herself in the position of an excuse-maker. However, from
time to time it is necessary to show the successors of Dr. Goebbels
that sense of proportion is essential even when lying; though as the
Reich Minister liked to repeat `lie must be collosal to believe it’.

Karine Ter-Sahakyan
«PanARMENIAN.NetÂ&#xB B; analytical department

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