ArmInfo. The talks of the Armenian authorities about peace with Azerbaijan, if they are not accompanied by concrete steps towards the strengthening of Armenia, are a false category. Political scientist Robert Ghevondyan expressed a similar opinion to ArmInfo.
"We certainly need to talk about peace. But we need to prepare for war. We spoke and prepared for peace back in 2019-20. As a result, the enemy prepared for war and won it. In this light, Prime Minister Pashinyan, of course, has to talk about peace, simultaneously acting towards the formation of real mechanisms for ensuring it, intensively arming the army, creating new opportunities for ensuring security, etc. As far as I understand, all this is not being done, while without it, only talks about the peace has no basis, respectively, prospects," he said.
According to Ghevondyan, all this is especially urgent, against the backdrop of the Aliyev regime initiating more and more provocations in Artsakh. In his opinion, the situation around the village of Parukh is another, not the first and the last, provocation of Azerbaijan as part of its policy of creeping aggression. Especially against the background of the fact that Aliyev does not hide his own goals in the direction of de- Armenization and the final capture of Artsakh.
In this light, not seeing flaws in the performance of their own duties by Russian peacekeepers, the political scientist determines the current situation in Artsakh by the effective use by Azerbaijan of the opportunities that have opened up as a result of Ukraine and all related processes. In this light, Ghevondyan recalled that another Azerbaijani provocation followed the fact that a month ago the Armenian delegation abstained vote on Ukraine in the UN. The latter, in his opinion, means that Baku actively uses every opportunity, while the Armenian side, as a rule, does not.
"There is only one way out – Armenia must actively arm itself, strengthen its own security. Only this will force Azerbaijan to fulfill its own obligations. Moreover, it will allow us to sometimes go beyond our own obligations when necessary, forcing Baku to act already in our status. A show of force is the only way out to which we resort, as happened the other day in Khramort. But we resort extremely rarely. As for Artsakh specifically, Yerevan has no actual leverage on the situation there. However, Armenia remains one of the beneficiaries of the security of Artsakh residents by Russian peacekeepers. In this light, it may moreover must turn to Moscow demanding the fulfillment of its obligations. Otherwise, for example, it can be proposed to replace the Russian contingent in Artsakh with an international one. "It is clear that in the current geopolitical realities it will be quite difficult to do that, but it does not eliminate the need for action at all," the political scientist concluded.