Khankandi rally - Karabakh separatists' swan song To repeat 1988 will be impossible

No provocations of Karabakh Armenians, including rallies, will stop the process of Karabakh's transition to Azerbaijan's administrative control. The remnants of the Karabakh separatists do not want to realise this rather simple idea in any way. In an effort to impress the world community with the ostentatious, virtual cohesion of the Armenian ethnic population in Khankandi, the separatist ragtag group somehow forgets that all their actions are meaningless. Do you really think that a hastily convened rally can dramatically change any public opinion in many countries of the world at once?

But the separatists actually live by the ideas and aspirations of 1988, and not by modern realities, otherwise, they would have realised that Azerbaijan's position is not enclosed in some brackets, quotation marks, frames or formats - Sochi, Moscow, Brussels. The bottom line is that Azerbaijan's position is one, unified and clear, and it was voiced by President Ilham Aliyev: "Karabakh is Azerbaijan!". Within the borders of the republic that existed in 1991. And it won't be any other way.

"Azerbaijan is making great efforts to revive its Karabakh region. I have been there recently and was just amazed by the huge scale of construction, for example, the new airport in Zangilan, opened recently," Israeli political scientist Roman Gurevich said in an interview with Caliber.Az, expressing shock over what he saw in Karabakh.

He noted that the international airport in Fuzuli is already functioning, and this is not the only air gate in the region that Azerbaijan is going to open.

"Tunnels for vehicles and trains that make their way in the mountains, endless construction everywhere - and this is against the background of the territory's global demining. At the same time, Azerbaijan, restoring Karabakh, offers Armenia to take an active part in the regional economic development, on the one hand, and on the other - to fulfil the provisions of the Trilateral Statement of November 10, 2020, until the signing of the final peace treaty," Gurevich notes.

According to him, Armenia is interested in participating in the South Caucasus region's economic recovery, as it is a rather poor country that urgently needs profit from any activity, any profitable projects, Gurevich is sure.

However, in his opinion, there are forces in Armenia for whom revanchist ideas are more important than their own people's interests. And now they are doing everything to disrupt the peace agreement's signing. Meanwhile, at the recent quadrilateral meeting, the sovereignty of Azerbaijan and Armenia within their borders was recognised. The next stage is the signing of a peace treaty by the two countries leaders.

"And it has to happen. Because Azerbaijan stretches out its hand to peace and development, offering Armenians a profitable and bright future. But, on the other hand, Azerbaijan has its own 'Iron Fist' that can strike at any supporters of revanchism, at anyone who wants to unleash a new war in the region," the Israeli political scientist emphasises.

At the same time, Gurevich notes that for the first time since the Karabakh settlement, Russia has been out of business in this process. But an interesting coincidence is that the factor of the former Russian oligarch, a great friend of the Kremlin elite, and now the "new state minister of Karabakh" Ruben Vardanyan has recently emerged in Karabakh. And, of course, with his appearance, the situation in the region has worsened: armed provocations and rallies have followed in succession. Gurevich directly suggests: "Vardanyan was sent to Karabakh not to settle the conflict, but to keep it in a smouldering stage, so that without the participation of those who sent him, the differences would not be settled. All of this is theory, but there is also practice: the rally on October 30 was organized specifically to disrupt the high-level talks in Sochi because revanchists believe that if a peace agreement is signed, there will be no turning back. And the question, as they say, will be closed. But if it doesn't, it means that something can be changed. This is a kind of fear of the upcoming future, the understanding that everything is changing irrevocably, and the fact that Karabakh is only Azerbaijan was clear from the very beginning of the Armenian adventure. The question, in my opinion, is closed. It was one of the most prosperous regions of Azerbaijan. Now it has been released, and the Azerbaijani army will not allow any encroachments from any aggressor. I repeat, the issue has already been closed, and Pashinyan recognised Azerbaijan's territorial integrity in Prague. That is, he understands the necessity and inevitability of a peace agreement, and provocations drugged by the ideology of revanchism are only momentary phenomena that everyone will soon forget about," Gurevich said.

The trilateral talks in Sochi are certainly related to Karabakh's future, and they are very disturbing to the Armenian separatists. As noted by Turkish political analyst Engin Ozer in an interview with Caliber.Az, the rally held in Khankandi the day before yesterday is a sign that separatist remnants in Karabakh have only a few days left to exist.

The very subtext of the speeches and rallies in Karabakh, in the zone of temporary responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping contingent, in his opinion, is very simple – it is the desire of the separatist "elite" to prolong their relative well-being.

"Azerbaijan's intention to completely clean up the region is quite understandable, and this is one of the reasons for the separatists' concern. Therefore, this rally, in my opinion, is quite a logical manifestation of the impotence of local Karabakh renegades. However, everything has already changed. Armenia has already recognised Azerbaijan's territorial integrity, and by closing the topic of Karabakh, the current government in Yerevan plans to put an end to the existence of the Karabakh clans with their aggressive policy and constant attempt to earn dirty political dividends on this, fishing out financial resources from the Armenian diaspora, parasitizing on revanchism and 'great Armenians'," Ozer expressed confidence.