Pundit: Yerevan has lost touch with reality, carried away by revanchist slogans Caliber.Az talks to Atbek Aitmatov

Yerevan's desire to keep peace talks with Baku in perpetual limbo is impossible to hide. If Pashinyan suddenly comes out with statements that allow hoping that the process has moved on from the dead point, somebody from his political entourage immediately backs down. The political momentum gained is in vain, that is, the peace agreement, and thus the political stabilization of the South Caucasus is postponed for an indefinite future. As a consequence, the implementation of large-scale international projects, including in the South Caucasus region, will not avoid difficulties. This is visible and clear to everyone, and all the countries near and far that are involved in today's highly relevant large transport and logistics projects wish to plan and work in peace.

The recent visit of the German federal president Frank-Walter Steinmeier to Kazakhstan, which international political analysts directly attribute to the diversification of the southern transport route from Asia to Europe, the signing of the peace treaty between Baku and Yerevan, as well as the launch of the Zangezur corridor, was connected exactly to this problem.

According to Kazakhstani political scientist Atbek Aitmatov, Yerevan in reality underestimates the scale and globality of the West's plans to launch the Trans-Caspian corridor and other projects parallel to it, an alternative to the route via Russia. And in this context, the EU and the US see the processes in Central Asia and the South Caucasus as a single logical chain of events and tasks that, once solved, could bring Europe and Asia into a single transport, energy, and economic nexus that would lead to a global technological breakthrough and development for many countries on the continent.

Aitmatov expressed his thoughts on this in a conversation with Caliber.Az.

"President Steinmeier's visit is directly linked to the important tasks that the European Union has set for itself. If you trace the agenda of the meeting, we see that an important part of the conversation between the leaders was devoted to discussion of cooperation in the development of the Trans-Caspian international transport route, expansion of cooperation in the field of oil and gas, 'green energy', and industry. Here, Germany, as an economic 'engine' of Europe, sees Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan as two important actors on the different shores of the Caspian Sea, through which the historic route from Asia to Europe will pass.

The West has clear and explicit plans to modernise the routes linking the Central Asian and South Caucasian countries into a strong logistical and energy chain, and their revival is linked to two points of realpolitik: Russia's withdrawal from many markets, its geopolitical weakening, and the changing situation in the South Caucasus, namely the future unblocking of transport routes in the region, making possible increased transit from Asia to Europe via the so-called 'Middle Corridor'. A global perspective is opening up here, and if Armenia does not understand this, by continuing to delay the signing of a peace treaty with Azerbaijan and preventing the launch of the Zangazur corridor, it has every chance of dropping out of all integration processes forever.

In fact, Yerevan has almost lost touch with reality, being carried away by revanchist slogans and ideas, by odious internal political agenda, and completely forgetting that it is literally counting in days and hours.

Europe, of course, finds it difficult to understand the absurdity of the chauvinist rhetoric and destructive statements that are heard from Armenia, which supports separatism in a foreign land and calls to fight for some mystical 'Artsakh' in violation of all international norms and laws. But Europeans can see that Armenia is openly going against the innovation policy promoted by the West, essentially turning out to be the stumbling block that the West constantly stumbles over when it tries to link Europe and Asia by building integration bridges.

Yerevan refuses to understand that one day their country will be treated like that very stone: it will simply be excluded from all logistical schemes due to its lack of agreement and excessive toxicity, pushed out of the way.

So President Steinmeier's visit to Kazakhstan is an important sign for Yerevan to think and act, establishing the negotiation process with Azerbaijan as quickly as possible and thereby removing all obstacles and barriers to Armenia's inclusion in this global integration inter-regional project. This means that a peace treaty must be signed and the Zangazur corridor must be launched as soon as possible. No one - neither Europe nor the West - wants a 'great Armenia' drowning in its schizophrenia and isolated from the world," Aitmatov said.