NOBODY, AND EVEN ALIYEV BELIEVES THAT YEREVAN GAVE ITS AGREEMENT FOR THE STEP-BY-STEP RESOLUTION OF THE KARABAKH ISSUE
PanARMENIAN.Net
05.05.2007 GMT+04:00
Hardly does Ilham Aliyev want to win the laurels of the ex-president
Ayaz Mutallibov, who lost Khodjalu, or Heydar Aliyev, during whose
days Azerbaijan lost four regions.
Most probably Azerbaijan is getting ready for a war, or it pretends
so. The speech Ilham Aliyev made at the opening of the village Ramana,
may be qualified as a recurrent act of protest against the OSCE Minsk
Group suggestion about the probability of granting independence to
Nagorno-Karabakh.
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ However, some information disseminated by the Azeri
press clearly speaks of Baku’s active preparations for solving the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by use of force. According to the political
scientist Ali Massimov, "There is the need of not only having a strong
and efficient army, but also making some food storehouses, which
would be needed during the military actions taken for liberating
Nagorno-Karabakh." The information appeared to the public right
after Ilham Aliyev’s speech made to the refugees. In his speech
Azerbaijan’s president blamed Armenia for "breaking the agreement
about the confidentiality of the process of the ongoing negotiations
on peaceful way of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict regulation." One only has
to guess what the president meant to say, for it is the official Baku
that from time to time speaks about "the reached agreement", which,
according to its version, assumes the return of seven Azeri regions,
after which the issue of returning the refugees will be immediately
considered. Meanwhile Aliyev confirms that these suggestions were
made both by Armenia and the mediators. Aliyev also announced that
the status of Nagorno-Karabakh "may be discussed only within the
frames of territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. At the same time
Azerbaijan isn’t against to shelter peacekeeping forces, which has
been Armenia’s initiative." It’s strange that Aliyev again speaks
about the step-by-step resolution of the Karabakh issue, which was
rejected by the Armenian side already in 1997, and which became the
reason of the resignation of Armenia’s first president. Nobody,
and even Aliyev believes that Yerevan gave its agreement for the
step-by-step resolution of the Karabakh issue.
Yet, how great is the possibility of the renewal of the military
actions in the conflict zone? Hardly does Ilham Aliyev want to win
the laurels of the ex-president Ayaz Mutallibov, who lost Khodjalu,
or Heydar Aliyev, during whose days Azerbaijan lost four regions and
could have lost some more if the immediate armistice wasn’t declared
by Azerbaijan’s initiative.
Aliyev knows well what Azerbaijan may expect in case of war. Rattling
one’s saber is easy, especially with a one-billion military budget and
oil, as Ilham Aliyev likes to repeat very often. Moreover, president
of Azerbaijan announced, that "Azerbaijan possesses more armament
than Armenia," which by itself is a violation of the international
responsibilities of the CFE Treaty. Does he really believe that the
Azeri Army can indeed win the war without any assistance from Turkish
advisors and militants, or from different Islamic groups? The other
time they had both, however they lost.
Most likely Aliyev decided to take advantage of the election campaign
in Armenia and "support" the Armenian opposition. But the question
is whether or not the Armenian opposition needs "this support". If
the Armenian opposition really decides to accept any support from any
other country, it will be worse for it, if doesn’t, then once again
Baku hurried to make its plans.
According to the RA Prime-Minister Serge Sargsyan, many a time
Armenia has announced its position. "Let them say whatever they want,
we already stated our positions," said the Prime-Minister. The RA
Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed a similar viewpoint.
"This is not the first time the president of Azerbaijan has tried
to promulgate the content of negotiations, however nothing new
was mentioned in his speech. As before, I may confirm our approach
towards the negotiations, which is based on the self-determination
of Nagorno-Karabakh. The other issues of negotiations will proceed
from the main point. As for the Azeri president’s threats regarding
the conflict resolution with the help of military actions, repeating
it all the time, Azerbaijan only shows its disrespect towards the
international liabilities and weakness," said acting press-secretary
of RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Karapetyan.