Azerbaijan legitimizing 'even the most illogical elements' of political agenda – Karen Bekaryan  

Azerbaijan is legitimizing even the most illogical elements of its politiical agenda, receiving no legal counter-reaction by either Armenia or the friend countries that used to back a peace deal over Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), political analyst Karen Bekaryan said on Monday.

Covering the political developments during the broadcast Between the Lines aired on ArmNews TV channel, he also re-emphasized the importance of the right to self-determination, territorial integrity and non-use of force (or threat of force) as the main principles underlying the settlement of the long running Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. 

“Can the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office be in Baku and then come to Yerevan without any reference to the problem of captives – in either word or action? What does she have to do in Yerevan without a group of our captives arriving with her?” he said, highlighting at the same time the need of an in-depth diplomatic work dealing with both the meetings and the agenda.

Bekaryan further called attention to the language of threat, used repeatedly by Turkey and Azerbaijan, in an effort to target Armenia. “Turkey and Azerbaijan are trying in a way to ‘motivate’ Armenia with joint efforts, with every statement of theirs running with the opening phrase ‘should  Armenia behave itself…’,” he said, questioning also the adequacy of Azerbaijan’s move to hold large-scale military exercises after the recent war (as a country considering the conflict ‘resolved’).

Highlighting Nikol Pashinyan’s failure to counter-react to the reported developments, he blamed the prime minister for being “increasingly preoccupied” with maintaining his post after the defeat and failures. Meantime, the analyst praised the Foreign Minsitry for “showing signs of life” over the recent period by addressing such vital issues as the status of Karabakh, right to self-determination and certain territorial concerns.

“We have to adopt a welcoming approach to this when it comes to the current government, but we have seen so many things over the period that we are now trying to understand the challenges before welcoming those steps. It has been three years now that we have been facing the Foreign Minsitry’s silence amid the country’s continuing collapse and preparation for defeat – from the standpoint of foreign policy in essence.”.

Bekaryan also referred to the Foreign Ministry’s statement dismissing the reports that the top military brass’ call for Pashinyan’s resignation amounted to an attempted military coup. “It openly contradicted to the prime minister, but no reaction has come from the Foreign Ministry as yet. Neither has any demand been raised for the foreign minister’s dismissal. We did not see the kind of epopee which we normally eyewitnessed whenever someone from the public administration sector uttered a word opposing to the man holding the prime minister’s office,” he added.