Road through Lachin and Armenian cunning
Don't be sly, Avanes!

ANALYTICS  05 August 2022 - 17:08

The story about the new road bypassing Lachin and dissatisfied Armenians has all chances to become a modern parable about Armenian cunning and craftiness. It is also a tale about the impudence of "neighbors" unwilling to do a thing. It has only one end - Azerbaijan will be tough and will soon ask Armenians about their work.

Grandfather Avanes lived for thirty years at the farmstead of his neighbor Mammad and lived off the crops from his garden until at last Mammad asked Avanes to go back home. But Mammad was kind, and knowing that the way to Avanes' house went through his garden, he promised to build a bypass road for him. He promised, in a good way, to make it at his own expense.

"I will build almost the whole road for you and build a bridge to your house, and you only have to make up and widen the old path from the gate to the porch of your house. That's all there is to it," Mammad said.

He gave Avanes a year and a half and started to build his part of the road. In a year and a half, he built a new wide road as smooth as a glass and built a new bridge over the river for Avanes. But the latter did nothing during this time, sat idle. And when Mamed came and told him that he had built the road, Avanes met him unkindly. He got angry and started swearing.

"I'm not going anywhere," Avanes said categorically, "because my part of the road is not ready yet. It's a complicated job. The estimate has to be prepared. Give me three more years, I swear, I'll do it."

"All you had to do was widen the old path from your gate to the porch and pave it with stone to make it more comfortable. And you were twiddling your thumbs," Mammad said reproachfully and realized that even in three years Avanes will not do anything, he will still be living at his farmstead.

This parable, composed impromptu by the author of this article, perhaps most accurately explains the situation with the new highway bypassing Lachin, which was built by Baku for the ethnic Armenian population of the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. During this time, the Azerbaijani side built three dozen kilometers of roads along a completely new route, through difficult terrain, and even constructed a bridge over the most difficult section. For the Armenian side, everything is simpler - there was an old country road length of eight kilometers, which only had to be expanded and asphalted. But the Armenians were too lazy to do it as if they were waiting for someone to do it for them.

And now that Azerbaijan has finished its part of the work and delivered an ultimatum to the Armenian side, the Armenians began to stage armed provocations. But the "Revenge" operation made the Armenians sober up a little and remember that they have to leave Lachin and its surroundings completely, and go to and from Karabakh by the new road, according to the clear provision of the Trilateral statement of November 10, 2020. And there is the signature of Armenia's Prime Minister Pashinyan, who promised it. But there is no road. Armenians did not build it - they really did not want to leave for good the occupied Azerbaijani Lachin and surrounding villages.

What to do? Here they screamed in indignation, like children who were left without ice cream. As they say, there came a bright epiphany. The Armenian public and all kinds of political analysts began to ask questions. In particular, deputy and political scientist Tigran Abrahamyan, who dislikes "Turks," was also asking these questions. He worriedly noted that Azerbaijan gave time to the Armenian side until September 1 at most to change the route from Armenia to Karabakh, which now passes through the Lachin corridor.

"Why, then, has Armenia not raised the issue with regard to the new construction during this time? The authorities behind the scenes agreed to this route, to the transfer of Lachin and the villages, but did not take the steps resulting from it. Realizing that if they did not build the Armenian part of the road, it would cause big problems, they did not build it," Abrahamyan concluded and, in fact, exposed the Armenian cunning. That very subtlety can be so big and banal that it often backfires on Armenians themselves.

Members of the Armenian government have also woken up. In particular, Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Gnel Sanosyan said the construction of an alternative road to Lachin has begun.

"The construction of the road will be completed before spring. The work is divided into three parts, we are actively working," the minister cheerfully stated.

This directly indicates once again that the Armenians are starting road construction right now, from scratch. And right now, in all likelihood, they are preparing the estimates and design in a hurry. But Azerbaijan does not care. Azerbaijan has built its part of the road, which is much larger and more expensive. And now Mammad is waiting for Avanes until September 1. And after that, he will simply grab him by the back of the neck and send him to walk along his old road back home, if he has not built a new one.

Caliber.Az