Armenia willing to wage new war? Yerevan’s another provocation

Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan has said that there are suspicions that after the crimes that occurred in the region, after the forced deportation of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh, their homeland, Azerbaijan may have further plans to continue its encroachments on the Armenian territory.

Mirzoyan made these remarks in an interview with the Turkish TRT World TV channel on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum.

Thus, he answered the Turkish TV channel journalist’s question about the prospects for peace. This was an openly false statement, proving Yerevan’s unpreparedness to take practical steps towards peace.

Mirzoyan’s statement, in terms of its provocativeness, is quite comparable to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s yell, which was heard in then-occupied Karabakh.

“Karabakh is Armenia, that’s it,” Pashinyan shouted by putting an end to peace negotiations between Baku and Yerevan.

In fact, Mirzoyan also questions the feasibility of further negotiations between Baku and Yerevan. In one sentence he managed to voice so many false and provocative words. He accused Azerbaijan of some mythical “crimes,” although the matter rested in conducting an anti-terrorist operation against illegal Armenian armed groups in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.

Armenian former Deputy Defence Minister Artak Zakaryan’s statement also testifies that the Armenian militants are provided with numerous weapons although Baku repeatedly called for disarmament. Zakaryan said that as a result of the anti-terrorist operation, Azerbaijan destroyed and took as trophy weapons worth $1.5 billion. This amount may be even underestimated. Almost every day we hear that new arsenals of weapons from escaped Armenian militants have been found in the liberated territories, including Khankendi and its surroundings. Alas, at the same time, we read reports about new victims of mine terror. Azerbaijanis continue dying from mines planted by Armenian militants on the Azerbaijani land.

So Armenia committed the crimes. Armenia kept 20 per cent of the Azerbaijani territory under occupation for more than a quarter of a century, turning over a million Azerbaijanis into refugees and internally displaced people. Armenia committed ethnic cleansing. No Azerbaijanis were left in Armenia and in the fifth part of the Azerbaijani territory. Armenia bombed Azerbaijani cities during the 44-day second Karabakh war, as a result of which the Azerbaijani elderly, women, and children died.

As we see, Mirzoyan does not want to recognise Armenia’s crimes. He says “Nagorno-Karabakh” when talking about the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. In fact, Mirzoyan made Pashinyan look bad. Pashinyan was forced to more than once declare recognition of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, including the Karabakh region and enclaves.

By the way, Yerevan’s deceit is also visible as Armenia is unwilling to return the occupied Azerbaijani villages. Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev stated that the ownership of four non-exclave Azerbaijani villages, namely, Baganis Ayrum, Ashagi Eskipara, Kheyrimli and Gizilhajili, occupied by Armenia is indisputable and they must be immediately liberated. He also added that as part of the delimitation process, the issue of liberation of four exclave villages, namely, Yukhari Eskipara, Sofulu, Barkhudarli and Karki of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenia will be resolved. The Armenian foreign minister should talk about this. However, he voices false and provocative statements about Azerbaijan. He again voices some personal, unfounded suspicions rather than facts.

Moreover, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly stated that he has no plans to fight against Armenia again. However, Mirzoyan pretends that he is unaware of all this. He continues replicating the narratives previously voiced by Pashinyan and his curators from France, who are simply using the Armenian current leadership in their plans to penetrate the South Caucasus.

Baku sees all this. Moreover, Azerbaijan has repeatedly warned about the fallacy of such a behaviour. Apparently, Yerevan again decided to deliberately make provocations. What was the result of the previous faults for Armenia? Armenia faced a military-political fiasco during the 44-day second Karabakh war, the logical conclusion of which was a one-day anti-terrorist operation in Karabakh. Afterwards, Baku more than once called on Yerevan to take concrete steps towards peace.

Alas, we see Armenia’s concrete steps towards a new war.

Akbar Hasanov