Inept intervention or recipe for disaster

The adage - time heals all wounds - is one of the most popular sayings in most cultures, though, it may not be completely accurate about Azerbaijan’s ill-wishers, who, irrespective of unfolding changes in the South Caucasus, never take heed of the actual situation on the ground and keep blaming Baku for developments that run against certain western circles’ plan about Azerbaijan.

At the behest of the State Department, the Washington Post, notorious for blackmailing sovereign nations, has again proved loyalty to its sabotage mission and being a propaganda outlet in the hands of Baku’s sentient and sworn adversaries, replays old, unfounded and false accusations as something new.

This time, under the guise of the editorial board, The Washington Post slams the Azerbaijani government for protecting its sovereign rights and unrelenting fight against those, who occupied Karabakh and retained it and surrounding seven districts – equal to the size of Lebanon - under control for nearly 30 years, by razing to the ground major towns and hundreds of villages.

However, throughout the years of occupation, that is, from the early 1990s until 2020, neither the US administrations nor the Washington Post called a spade a spade, despite repeated calls by the Azerbaijani governments and public to speak clearly and directly about the aggressor though embarrassing or unpleasant the reality on the ground was.

Come what may, this has never happened and even today when Azerbaijan by force and arms has de-occupied the internationally-recognized lands from Armenia’s yoke, the detractors are again rallying public opinion against Baku. Nonetheless, this time again their nasty plans and intentions would be watered down by Azerbaijan’s determined and resolute steps and policies backed by the absolute majority of the nation.

With no calls by the mediating countries of Russia, France, and the USA, they, as arch enemies to one another, are united when it comes to Azerbaijan and its just and fair struggle for cementing independence and sovereignty in the region, deeply unpredictable but always tempting for a strategic location for many nations, with Azerbaijan being as a major actor.

The countries - Russia, France, and the USA - who thwarted the mission of the OSCE Minsk Group, to play a role in the de-occupation of the Azerbaijani lands, instead of crediting Baku for the sole mission of liberating the lands, and thus showing an example to other aggressors that their noses would be smashed if they undertake similar adventurous steps, however, missed the chance and sided with Armenia again in the post-2020 Second Karabakh War.

Azerbaijan is determined to finish the mission once and for all, and the apparent fresh campaign from overseas seems rooted in the latest unraveling developments, that is, to distract the government’s attention from rebuilding efforts in Karabakh and put for demarcation and delimitation of the borders with Armenia on the back burner, and frustrate Baku’s best efforts to reintegrate the part of Karabakh under the temporary control of the Russian peacekeepers.

The detention of Ibadoglu is an internal affair of Azerbaijan, there is an investigation and a court for this, but, nevertheless, this story served as an informational source for the Armenian diaspora, with which Macron and Victoria Nuland are on the same stage.

These are integral parts of the scheme plotted in Paris, Moscow, and Washington with direct involvement of the Armenian diaspora and money. However, the Azerbaijani government with the popular support and help of friends in the region and beyond has time and again proved that alien plans would not work in Azerbaijan and the national sovereignty over the territory with which Azerbaijan was accepted to the international family of states would always remain intact.

The reality on the ground is that Azerbaijan has regained occupied by Armenia for 30-year lands by force and the process occurred following unproductive and ineffective mediation by the OSCE Minsk Group, of which - one of the co-chairs was the USA and is not to revive it again now. However, for nearly 30 years, the co-chairs made up of France. Russia and the USA did not move the settlement process an inch and efforts were entirely to freeze the conflict and retain some 20 per cent of the occupied lands under Armenia’s occupation. Those plans and others we do not know were and will be failed as the government’s determination sees no boundaries and challenges threats.

Nuland in a new post – though she is not a brand-new figure in the agency and a new wave of anti-Azerbaijani attacks overlap with her comeback to the State Department.

Back in her post under the Obama administration as US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland did a lot to retain the conflict unresolved though soon after the April 2016 battles, she visited the region but failed to denounce the occupation of the Azerbaijani lands, expressing her hope that “peace will be established on the contact line of Armenian and Azerbaijani troops shortly”.

At that point, V. Nuland expressed her concern about the tension in the conflict zone during the meetings with the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia but she never wondered what were the root causes and naturally, it did not fit her behind-the-curtain mission.

At that time, she was quoted as saying: "We want to establish peace and conduct direct negotiations. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group talked about this, and I expressed the need to stop the bloodshed, which does not benefit either side, in the meetings with the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia. In my opinion, within the framework of this visit, progress has been made in both capitals and peace will be established on the line of contact in the coming days for the sake of the servicemen and their families."

As obvious from the above lines, none of the co-chairs was for the liberation by Armenia of the occupied Azerbaijani lands and the Azerbaijani leadership aware of it with President Ilham Aliyev repeatedly emphasizing the importance of uniting around the single idea of ending the Armenian occupation and this happened in 2020.

Azerbaijan is much stronger today than in those years and with the strong-arm factor playing a crucial role nowadays Azerbaijan has guaranteed its future and alien plans will be determinedly foiled at all stages.