Military adventurism by Azerbaijan can have unpredictable consequences for itself – President Sargsyan

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. The 4-day military adventurism unleashed by Azerbaijan in April 2016 was the materialization of years of militaristic policies and propaganda of Baku, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan announced in a meeting with the experts of Carnegie Foundation’s Brussels Office, adding that it was a serious blow to the peace process. According to the President of Armenia, the Azerbaijani aggression once again demonstrated that the struggle of the people of Artsakh for its safe existence and freedom on its own land had and today has no alternative. “This is not an opinion but a reality created and enforced upon us by the Azerbaijani policy. There are strictly defined agreements reached in Vienna and Saint Petersburg after the April war, related to upholding of the unlimited tri-party ceasefire agreements of 1994-1995 and on the creation in the conflict zone of the mechanisms to investigate violations of the ceasefire regime. However, Azerbaijan, true to its long-standing tradition, refuses to implement these agreements and declares that their implementation will allegedly reinforce the existing status quo in Nagorno Karabakh. If Azerbaijan is truly concerned with changing the status quo in Nagorno Karabakh, there is only one way to do it – to recognize the right of the people of Nagorno Karabakh to self-determination”, “Armenpress” reports Serzh Sargsyan saying. He added that it would be naïve to assume that Azerbaijan was unaware of the heavy blow it dealt to the peace process, how much it reinforced the status quo and how much it pushed pack the peace process.

According to the President of Armenia, Baku is using the Nagorno Karabakh conflict to divert the attention and rising discontent within its own society related to the pressing social and economic issues and blatant violations of human rights in the country. The Commander in Chief of the Armenian Armed Forces noted that for that very reason, Baku recently stated that Nagorno Karabakh was its “internal affair.”

“It has been for years that the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, namely France, Russia and the US, who form the agreed international format, have been mediating the Nagorno Karabakh issue. Someone in Baku might have had a bad dream and based on that deluded himself that these three major international actors have put aside their own complicated issues and suddenly chose to engage in Azerbaijan’s “internal affair.”

This was just an episode from the theater of absurd which is being staged in Baku. We encounter it almost on a daily basis. However, sincere outbursts also happen. On one such instance, the leader of Azerbaijan, trying to boost his very significance in front of his subordinates, admitted publicly that at the negotiations behind the closed doors he was under pressure to recognize independence of Nagorno Karabakh, and he was the sole person able to withstand the pressure coming from the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group.

The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, as mediators, are also called upon to prevent possible escalation in the area of conflict. Negotiations conducted under the shelling hold no promise.

That is the stage the Artsakh conflict resolution process has reached now. Both Artsakh and Armenia are in principle against the use of force and are in favor of solving the problem as soon as possible through peace negotiations”, the President said, adding that Azerbaijan’s new attempts to engage in a military adventurism can have unpredictable consequences for Azerbaijan itself. Armenia, as the guarantor of Nagorno Karabakh’s security, has stated on many occasions that it is ready to respond adequately to any attempt to use force.