Patience runs out: Cavusoglu's statement draws thick line under Yerevan's games

The chorus of dissatisfied voices was once again heard in Armenia. The voices are plaintive and moaning. As soon as Armenians got ready to open borders with Türkiye without preconditions, the Turkish Foreign Ministry reminded the "ancients" about Zangazur. And then the "anthill" started to stir.

But before that, a new wave of political "corridor" games started in Armenia. They followed President Aliyev's tough statement about Armenia's obligations, to which Moscow could not fail to respond. Almost immediately Lavrov at a meeting with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov started talking about the obligatory implementation of all provisions of the Trilateral Declaration of November 10 and in general about how "everything is going according to plan". Even the secretary of the National Security Council Grigoryan, after being told off by Moscow, promised to withdraw all the Armenian troops from Karabakh, adding impudently that nobody is going to dissolve the "Artsakh defence army".

But it's ok, we'll solve this problem. But Armenians try to block the issue of opening of Zangazur corridor with particular vehemence again. Firstly, because they are really stuck: if the delimitation talks are a long-standing issue, and the signing of the peace treaty is not a one-day process too, then the issue of opening of Zangazur corridor can't be postponed any longer. It is especially important on the wave of anti-Russian sanctions: Moscow also wants the shortest possible access to Turkish markets and the launch of Zangazur is very useful for it now. And here Azerbaijan reminds Russia about its obligations where it has a lot of failures, including red tape concerning the withdrawal of Armenian militants from Karabakh. The Kremlin must finally demonstrate at least some results of its work, or else it will have to ask Russian peacekeepers to "leave" Karabakh.

Tehran is heating up a new stage of Armenian profanation, which softly, but quietly declared that it will not tolerate the reshaping of the Armenian-Iranian border. Evidently, by this, they mean that the Zangazur corridor will cut the Iranian-Armenian communications in this direction. This, of course, is also fabricated. Here Tehran's imperial ambitions clearly prevail over logic, because Baku is already working with it on an alternative option of Zangazur along the Iranian territory along the Araz River. Besides, it is not the fact that the Azerbaijani corridor on the Armenian territory will cut the road from Iran to Armenia: it is possible to build communications so that they will not affect each other. However, what has been said has touched the spot, and the necessary negativity has been added.

And the most important thing: as the establishment of Armenian-Turkish relations is rapidly developing, Yerevan had fears that new blocking of Zangazur subject might go well with this wave. It means the signals from Tehran were enough for Armenians to get inspired and launch a new portion of negative political trash-talk on this topic.

Then the "response" came very quickly: the Armenians were sharply put down. So were the statements from Tehran. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in an interview with TRT Haber that Ankara is expecting Yerevan to take concrete steps to normalize bilateral relations, and he reproached the Armenian side for protracting the process, setting two clear preconditions regarding the Armenian-Azerbaijani relations. In particular, he demanded that Armenia must take steps both to open the Zangazur corridor and to negotiate a peace treaty with Azerbaijan.

"Azerbaijan and we are sincere. We want to see in practice how sincere Armenia is. So far there have been signals and statements. There is also pressure, it is true. Diaspora from outside, fanatical groups inside. However, so far we don't see any clear steps by Armenia on the issue of Zangazur and other projects or the peace treaty. In other words, the Armenian leadership headed by Pashinyan must take positive steps for peace. Only words are not enough," Cavusoglu said.

The Turkish foreign minister stressed: "We started the process with Armenia in a bilateral format, but we should not forget that it is actually trilateral. We coordinate every step with Azerbaijan, and whether Armenia wants it or not, that's the reality. We are one nation - two states."

And of course, such a statement is a powerful blow to the whole Armenian sabotage machine, which is trying to disrupt the process of implementation of the envisaged obligations. So the haters - and there are some in the Armenian opposition and in Pashinyan's team - showed up almost at once.

Ankara's new statement on the Zangazur corridor and the peace treaty with Azerbaijan is not a precondition for the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations, as one of such "anti-Zangazu colation" participants, the Chairman of National Assembly Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs Eduard Aghajanyan stated answering the journalists' question. Türkiye has always made such statements, which are unacceptable for the Armenian side, he said.

"The Armenian side has repeatedly pointed out that Türkiye's statements and actions do not always coincide. One of our tasks is to do everything possible to minimize these discrepancies," Aghajanyan stressed.

The insolence of the Armenian speaker is shocking. He is really dreaming, hoping that the Armenians, in spite of their thirty-year-long lies during the negotiations on Karabakh, will be allowed into the "paradise", which for Armenians is the Turkish market and the unblocking of the borders in general. And there will come, as Armenia expects, "paradise life", which consists in the removal of the economic isolation of the country. And the first road to the civilized world should be the transport communications and the customs point at the Turkish-Armenian border.

But, as it turned out, it is still far away, and the roads to civilized space might remain closed, if Armenia won't undertake real actions, quickly enough, to launch the Zangazur corridor.

The most interesting is that at the initial stage Armenians are not required to do anything special: to present the project of the transport corridor which means rail and automobile communication between western regions of Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan through the Armenian territory. They have had more than enough time to do this, but such a project has still not been presented to Baku. That is, as correctly noted by Ilham Aliyev, Armenia does nothing in this direction and does not even try. Though there is enough idle chatter on the subject.

Well, now everything becomes clearer: games turn into action. Or a sign of apparent inaction. The intermediate stage is no longer acceptable. Cavusoglu's statement draws a thick line under all Armenian profanations with their false demagogy and endless play on the Trilateral Statement. The masks are dropped, and we are waiting for the results.

Otherwise, it may happen like in a famous movie, where it was suggested to cut off the gas for disobedience and boycott. In our case, we can cut off not only the gas but the entire corridor as well. And perhaps, when the Armenians of Khankendi start crying for help to Yerevan, the Armenian MPs Aghajanyan and others like him will finally wake up and try to analyze the reality.