Security Council announces Armenia's refusal to negotiate with Azerbaijan Yerevan's old tactics may backfire

Secretary of the Armenian Security Council Armen Grigoryan’s interview with Azatutyun radio on March 10 actually put an end to the negotiations between Baku and Yerevan as Grigoryan openly stated that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government is not going to sign a peace treaty if the "security issue" of Karabakh is not resolved.

“It is necessary to create an opportunity for discussions to hold the negotiations, and it is necessary to remain within the agreements because we agreed to discuss the issues related to the security and rights,” Grigoryan said, adding that “the international mechanism envisages negotiations or discussions between “Stepanakert” and Baku, and as a result of negotiations, mechanisms can be created there. For example, the creation of a demilitarised zone around the line of contact in Karabakh could be one such mechanism. This demilitarised zone will naturally create security guarantees for Karabakh.

It is quite obvious that Yerevan’s demarche (Grigoryan, along with Pashinyan and Mirzoyan, is one of those authorised by the Armenian side to hold talks with Baku) absolutely fits into the logic of Armenia's recent actions.

Among these actions is the provocation on March 5, caused by the ongoing supply of weapons and personnel to Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region for illegal Armenian gangs, and Pashinyan’s destructive statements about the need to introduce international mechanisms in Karabakh, as well as the refusal from Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s Munich proposal to create bilateral checkpoints on the Armenian-Azerbaijani conditional border.

Now Yerevan started saying again about "the rights and security of the Karabakh Armenians" to drag out and divert the negotiation process. It is necessary to once again remind Armenia that Azerbaijan resolved the Karabakh conflict in autumn 2020.

Now the issue of ensuring the rights and security of the Armenians living in the Karabakh region is an internal affair of Azerbaijan, which it does not intend to discuss with anyone - neither with Armenia, nor with other countries.

Baku has publicly stated at the highest level more than once that the Armenians living in the Karabakh region are citizens of Azerbaijan.

Moreover, the statement was made at the talks in Brussels, Washington, Prague and Munich that Baku would not discuss issues related to Azerbaijan’s sovereign rights with any third party.

The issue of the rights and security of the Armenian residents of Karabakh will be resolved in accordance with the Azerbaijani Constitution.

“Being a responsible member of the international community, after some time Azerbaijan can inform international partners about the ongoing dialogue with its citizens - but only as a sign of goodwill and an example of transparency,” Assistant to the Azerbaijani President, Head of the Department of Foreign Policy Affairs of the Presidential Administration Hikmat Hajiyev said in an interview with local journalists in October 2022.

Azerbaijan unveiled five basic principles for the normalisation of relations with Armenia in March 2022. They are as follows:

- mutual recognition of sovereignty, territorial integrity, inviolability of international borders and political independence of each other;

- mutual confirmation of the absence of territorial claims of countries against each other and a legal obligation not to make such claims in the future;

- refrain from threatening each other's security in interstate relations, from using threats and force against political independence and territorial integrity, as well as from other circumstances incompatible with the purposes of the UN Charter;

- delimitation and demarcation of the state border, establishment of diplomatic relations;

- the restoration of transport relations and routes, the establishment of other corresponding relations, and cooperation in other spheres of mutual interest.

As we can see, Karabakh is mentioned neither in these principles, nor during numerous rounds of negotiations.
It is clear that this is an internal affair of Azerbaijan, with which Armenia should not have anything to do.

Accordingly, the creation of any "international mechanism" to control the rights and security of the Armenian residents of Karabakh is out of the question.

Azerbaijan does not intend to lose its sovereignty.

While making various manipulations to delay peace negotiations or completely abandon them ranting about certain rights and security of the Karabakh Armenians, Armenia understands all this very well. You would be better to think about the rights and security of your only ethnic minority - the Yazidis. But this is your internal affairs, in which Azerbaijan does not intend to interfere and will not allow Yerevan and its patrons to interfere in its affairs. Emboldened Grigoryan should remember the sad fate of another member of Pashinyan’s team, who threatened Azerbaijan with the loss of territories, and as a result lost not only the army, but also freedom. So, if you don't want negotiations and peace, then we don't need them either. You will lose.

As for the Armenian ethnic population of Karabakh, it should once and for all remember President Aliyev’s words: “All conditions will be created for those who wish to live under the Azerbaijani flag. They will be provided with rights and security as Azerbaijani citizens, they will live even better. If anyone does not want to become our citizen, then the road is not closed, but open. They can leave on their own, no one will stop them or they can leave by peacekeepers' trucks, or maybe by bus. The road is open.”