"Lachin checkpoint will put an end to Armenia's piling arms and fighters into Karabakh" Israeli pundits talk to Caliber.Az

By setting a border checkpoint on the conditional border with Armenia in the Lachin direction, Azerbaijan cut off all Yerevan's attempts to pour weaponry and fighters into Karabakh and ensured the security of its territories. Meanwhile, Armenia and its lobbies around the world are still trying to twist the situation to their advantage, but they do it badly.

For instance, Avraham Shmulevich, a specialist on the Caucasus, Islamic world, and the Middle East, chairman of the Eastern Partnership Institute (Jerusalem) told Caliber.Az that from the international law perspective, Karabakh is a legal and inalienable territory of Azerbaijan. Therefore, Azerbaijan has an absolute right to do whatever it wants on its territory, especially when it comes to security issues.

"The West and Russia have also formally recognized it, but nothing has been done in 30 years to return those territories under Azerbaijan's control", the political analyst said.

Thus, according to him, Azerbaijan used the existing geopolitical situation logically. If earlier there was a veiled threat from Russia and Iran - Yerevan's allies, now Baku, having a solid army and strong allies, has decided to force the events, cutting off the further process of piling weapons and fighters into Karabakh from Armenia by creating a checkpoint.

"That is, from the point of view of international law, Azerbaijan has every right to establish a checkpoint in Lachin. Moreover, the agreements that were concluded after the war and the conditions under which Russian peacekeepers are in Karabakh imply the withdrawal of armed Armenian formations from Karabakh, they should not be on that territory. What is happening now in the RPC zone of responsibility is a violation of the obligations that Russia and Armenia have undertaken to Azerbaijan. Baku is acting quite logically and justifiably here. Especially when you consider that in principle, everyone in the world knew that sooner or later it had to happen, and Azerbaijan had to return absolute control over the entire territory of the Karabakh region," Shmulevich said.

For his part, the Israeli journalist and publicist, head of the International Relations Commission of the Journalists' Union of Israel, Rostislav Goltzman, told Caliber.Az that "we are now witnessing a situation that has developed after the heated phase of the conflict".

"At this post-conflict stage, the first thing to do is to stabilize the situation, because if we look into what kind of mess the Armenian and other forces are trying to make in Karabakh, it is the opposite, it is the way to complete destabilization of the peaceful climate in the region. Israel is no stranger to this since we had a similar situation after the war with Lebanon in 2006, when Israel repulsed the Lebanese aggression and the Israeli troops reached the Letani River in sudden advance. All that was needed at that time was one tank rush to Beirut, which, in fact, could hardly offer any resistance. The world understood that one more strike against Beirut and a political entity like Lebanon would simply cease to exist.

But Israel did not want that, because it objectively understood that Lebanon's situation in the Middle East was not much better than Israel's. On the other hand, neither could Israel allow Hezbollah terrorists to stand near its borders and fire rockets into its territory while Israeli civilians were dying," Goltsman stressed.

And then Israel, he said, did the right thing under the concept of international law by resorting to launching a mechanism to stabilise the situation after the heated phase of the conflict. Fortunately, such a mechanism had been set up specifically after the Second World War, namely by the UN.

"But what was the result? Israel, unwilling to destroy Lebanon, agreed to the deployment of UN troops in South Lebanon to oversee the implementation of the organisation's decision to end the conflict. UN forces then regularly, cheerfully, and confidently reported to their superiors that there were no more terrorists here. True, with one small but very strange caveat: yes, there are no terrorists in Lebanon, but there are areas where we are not allowed in by some incomprehensible armed men. That is, it is a demonstration of utter helplessness in solving the most important issue," said the Israeli political scientist.

As a result, he said, the same "armed men" who are Hezbollah fighters are still trying to shell Israeli territory, and they are now confronted by the armies of Lebanon and Israel.

"But the fact remains that the international mechanism that was supposed to stabilise the situation after the end of the hot phase of the conflict is objectively not working. And I have absolutely no doubt that everything will be exactly the same if there is a UN force in Karabakh. The very law that turns on the 'honest man' rather than the perpetrator of his misfortunes will come into play. The Israelis can only stand on their own border as a result, unaware of what is happening now in those areas where UN peacekeepers are 'not allowed', but which are in fact potential terrorist concentration zones. Therefore, in my opinion, Azerbaijan needs to act with all determination. Full military and border control over all its territories. There is no other alternative. Yes, I wish things were different, that UN forces and international directives worked in practice, but alas, they do not work," Goltsman summed up.