Who attempts to disrupt peace between Azerbaijan, Armenia? Vacant seats available in court dock

Head of the Armenian Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs, MP from the ruling Civil Contract party Gevorg Papoyan made a powerful statement during a conversation with journalists in the National Assembly of Armenia.

In fact, he named those who were ready to undertake any provocations to disrupt the signing of a peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Papoyan pointed out that the second and third presidents of Armenia, former Karabakh separatists Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan, are trying to ruin Armenian statehood.

“They signed a surrender agreement, disbanded the ‘Karabakh army’, surrendered weapons to Azerbaijan, ‘dissolved the parliament. Do they want to hold a meeting of the ‘Karabakh parliament’ in Armenia now? This is a bomb against Armenia, it’s simply unacceptable,” Papoyan stressed.

He noted that the most important thing is the Republic of Armenia, 29,800 square kilometres, its tricolour flag.

“Whoever takes action against Armenia is my personal enemy. They ruined everything in Karabakh. Do they want to do the same with Armenia now? Well, that’s enough,” the MP said.

Of course, it is possible to remind of the provocative actions of the current leadership of the Republic of Armenia, including Pashinyan’s statements that “Karabakh is Armenia, period.” All this happened. But there was something else.

Pashinyan was forced to recognise Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. The Armenian leadership did not interfere, contrary to the plans of the revanchists, during Azerbaijan’s perfect anti-terrorist measures in Karabakh. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev drew attention to this in his appeal to the Azerbaijani people on September 20.

 “I can say that during this period – yesterday, today, Armenia unexpectedly showed political competence, and we appreciate it. We consider this an important factor, and I think that the events that happened yesterday and today will simultaneously have a positive impact on the ongoing peace process between Azerbaijan and Armenia,” the Azerbaijani president said.

We can already see that this process is moving in the right direction, beneficial to the entire South Caucasus. We saw a joint statement by the Azerbaijani presidential administration and the Armenian prime minister’s office, which laid an important foundation for the signing of a major peace agreement between the two countries. Of course, even being great optimist, we must remember that the path to peace has never been short or easy especially when some major powers oppose peace.

In this regard, I would like to remind President Aliyev’s statement during the forum “Karabakh: Back Home After 30 Years. Accomplishments and Challenges” that Azerbaijan achieved a historic victory, relying on its own strength and even overcoming political pressure. He spoke about the main mistake of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries.

“We proved that all three countries were wrong. Despite the history of statehood, international experience and their membership in the UN Security Council, they were wrong. This was a wrong assessment. This was a message to Azerbaijan that if you try to resort to resolving the conflict through military means, you will not achieve it. However, we have proven that there is a military solution to this conflict. This conflict was resolved three years ago,” the Azerbaijani leader emphasised.

Everyone should always remember this, especially now, when Baku and Yerevan are one step closer to signing a peace agreement because the plans of various world powers have not disappeared. They hoped for fulfilling the plans by aggravating the situation in the region, as well as disrupting the steps towards peace that are being taken by Azerbaijan and Armenia.

The plans of the Armenian revanchists, including Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan, have not disappeared either. They know that they are guilty of numerous crimes both against Armenian and Azerbaijani people. They understand that they must be among the defendants near separatist leaders Arkady Ghukasyan, Bako Sahakyan, Arayik Harutyunyan and Ruben Vardanyan. They know and therefore they are ready to ruin Armenian statehood. The Armenian society should think whether it is ready to stop the implementation of these plans. Azerbaijan has already demonstrated its readiness for peace.

Akbar Hasanov