Yerevan begging for forceful coercion to peace
Mirzoyan goes down Tonoyan's path

ANALYTICS  26 January 2023 - 11:10

Judging by the pretentious vocabulary that Ararat Mirzoyan, Armenian Foreign Minister used while speaking at European Parliament, he seemed to imagine himself a real European politician, who had the right to judge war and peace. However, the Yerevan minister tried to tell tall tales to European MPs, but even the brightest European chandeliers were dimmed by the astounding flow of lies and vanity.

"There are two options for lifting the blockade of the Lachin corridor - military or diplomatic," Mirzoyan told the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee. According to him, "Armenia is committed to the second option, but this is possible only in case of a decisive intervention of the international community, strong pressure on Azerbaijan, and concrete actions in this direction.

What did Mirzoyan swing at so bravely? Was it just an impression, or did he actually dare to speak about the "military solution" to the question? Should this be taken as a threat from Yerevan to Baku? It seems that after the beating by the crowd in the square in front of the Armenian parliament in 2020, Mirzoyan is not healed and his memory is somewhat stuck. He has completely forgotten that not so long ago various Armenian ministers, and Armenia itself, had to pay a heavy price for such courage.

I remember another such hawk, former Armenian Defence Minister David Tonoyan, very boldly rushed into battle with the arrogant slogan "New War - New Territories" in 2019, who very soon turned into a miserable laughing stock: the Armenian military "power" shamefully capitulated, and now Tonoyan is a defendant in a criminal case. It would be logical for Yerevan to offer only subservient and delicate proposals in this regard, in a diplomatic vein, and not to dare to think about others. Otherwise, there will be nothing left from the Armenian military. But if this statement of the Armenian chief diplomat is to be regarded as a "military" message from Yerevan, we are waiting for it. But beware, this time Azerbaijan's methods of peace enforcement will be harsher and more persistent, do not expect any indulgence.

The answer to Mirzoyan's claims in connection with the Lachin road is simple: Armenia will have to forget about Karabakh in general and the Lachin road in particular forever. Do not mention it in vain at all. All the more so for Mirzoyan. Unless, of course, he wants his head to ache again, as it was last time by the walls of his native parliament. Remember this once and for all: this is Azerbaijani land, and it is called Karabakh, or (in accordance with the administrative and territorial division of Azerbaijan) the Karabakh Economic Region.

And we have already dealt with this, including in the fields of the 44-day war. The European Community has already turned over the page with the "status" and the interpretation of who, where, and whose Karabakh is. Not to mention the fact that Pashinyan himself in Prague publicly recognized the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. Even France, despite the cries of the Armenian diaspora, refused to officially recognize the "self-determination" of the separatists. Mirzoyan should shut his mouth, forgetting about the Lachin road and the Armenians of Karabakh. The latter, by the way, as President Ilham Aliyev has said, are our citizens. And we can manage somehow without Mirzoyan's advice not trying, as the Armenian minister did, to deceive MEPs by claiming about invented "ethnic cleansing of Karabakh Armenians" and "an attempt to force them to leave their homes". In today's Azerbaijani Karabakh, the realities are quite different.

Azerbaijan only asks to leave Karabakh those who do not want to accept the citizenship of our country and have nasty plans - to all others it offers peaceful and decent living standards, which, as stated by President Ilham Aliyev, "will be much better than before". They will have equal rights with other citizens of Azerbaijan. In general, no one was ever divided into "white" and "black" in Baku and other cities and districts of the country, no one was persecuted and no ghetto was set up for anyone. For some reason, Mirzoyan does not mention this. Has something happened to your memory again? Or is it easier to take words out of context and make up terrible fairy tales?

Another word about Mirzoyan claiming "steady observance by Armenia of its obligations". The Armenian minister voiced the bald-faced lie: over the past two years, the Armenian government, having the political will to settle relations with Azerbaijan, participated in negotiations in good faith in three different directions. "The first is the unblocking of all transport communications in the region, the second is border demarcation and border security, and the third is an agreement on the normalisation of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan or a peace treaty," he said.

In this nonsense, the keyword that should be highlighted is 'in good faith'. In other words, a quality that Armenians have absolutely none of. It has died out as an atavism. And this can be confirmed by the very European mediators who have wasted their time aimlessly molly-coddling Yerevan in negotiations over the past two years. American and European politicians have repeatedly tried to push the peace process forward, at least regarding delimitation. Simulating negotiations is, apparently, the only thing Armenia is capable of now, and we are well aware of this Armenian "ability".

Baku will not be softened up by Mirzoyan's tales - we can easily distinguish Armenian verbiage from a serious conversation. We have been waiting for a long time for Yerevan to fulfill its commitments under the Trilateral Statement of 2020. However, as reality shows, Armenia has never appreciated a fair and respectful attitude. It understands only the language of the Iron Fist and coercion to peace. There is a psycho type of people who are not too intelligent, and who begin to think only with a very strong kick. In this sense, both Mirzoyan and Armenians seem to have the same algorithm for prompting action.

Caliber.Az