“Armenia’s Authorities Intended to Show their Teeth to Russia, however, it may have a Rather Negative Influence”
On the whole, the Vienna meeting may be assessed as positive, however, a worrying issue is existent. Yervand Bozoyan, member of “Consolidation” party told about this reporters today.
In his words, purpose of the meeting in Vienna was discharge of tension emerged in the region after the four-day April war.
“Naturally, anticipating final results in Vienna was premature, as after the war mediators realized, that negotiations around a concrete document are impossible, as chief purpose of the meeting was discharging of the situation. In this sense it was a crucial achievement for us that the Azerbaijani side failed to cancel the 1994-19995 ceasefire agreement and ground on the statement made on April 5, i.e. Azerbaijan was attempting to settle that issue, however, it failed. The second point is that both Armenia and mediators were insisting on intensification of monitoring on the Line of Contact, and creation of security systems, which will prevent resumption of possible military operations, and will make clearly visible which side is more aggressive.”
In this regard, according to Bozoyan, the fact, that Azerbaijan was opposing to this issue, is welcomed as well. However, according to the mediators, that provision was adopted.
“You know, that the official representative of Azerbaijan recently stated that they agreed on it with a condition that negotiations will be mandatorily developed, and concrete draft will be discussed in June.
Basically, the Azerbaijani side stressed, that it agrees on it conditionally, otherwise Baku states, if they adopt it without resumption of negotiations, it’ll mean the issue will be frozen, to which Azerbaijan is categorically against. In this sense, generally assessing the Vienna meeting, may be regarded as positive, however, the concerning point is that the mediators, by claiming to continue negotiations in June, a meeting of the two presidents will be mandatorily held, state that the sides should already discuss to which degree the sides are ready to a compromise: which is the red line of Armenia and Azerbaijan, by which negotiations will develop? The fact, that RF MFA Lavrov stated that at least he observed phase-to-phase settlement as the most productive, which, in fact, is supported by mediators as well. In this regard, this is a serious challenge for us,” he said.
According to him, big war is not beneficial for the mediators, everybody saw, that a big war may derive from a small one.
“Neither Russia, nor the USA, nor the European Union need big war for different reasons, and they have serious concerns, that the big war has been inflamed. Everybody understands—the greatest threat for the big war is Azerbaijan,” he said, adding that, to avoid war, in fact, they attempt to somewhat satisfy Azerbaijan’s claims.
Yervand Bozoyan stated, that Armenia faces two problems—what to do to restore balance, and confront diplomatic pressures, “We should objectively realize that mediators are tended to Azerbaijani disposition, that’s why they propose phase-to-phase variant, they simply observe that the balance has changed in favor of Azerbaijan, and the latter threatens with war, and mediators, attempting to prevent war, propose variants to satisfy Azerbaijan.” In his words, the Armenian side should do its best to gain time to restore balance, without which maintenance of peace in the region is impossible: wars start due to a balance change, and end by a record of balance change. He stated if Nagorno-Karabakh is a territory for Azerbaijan, then it’s a security issue for us.
He stated that the April war was unexpected for the public, “The second unexpected point is that people saw Azerbaijan’s technical advantage. The third one is that the society was surprised with Russia, not in a good sense. The society expected Russia to protect Armenia in all issues.”
He stated that a tendency is being observed to dispose the people and the society against Russia, “A rather hazardous tendency is observed here. For instance, the same Eurovision voting was a vivid example that Armenia’s authorities intended to show teeth to Russia, however, it may have a negative influence for Armenia. That is, they play with the fire and don’t realize what a serious fire is this. I want to stress for our society that those games don’t prompt anything good for the people, if we damage relations with Russia, we’ll face serious threats”
He stated that the issue won’t be settled in the forthcoming 20-25 years, generations should change to break the hatred. The issue needs to be frozen, then a democratic diplomatic policy may be launched, in particular, insemination of anti-Armenian moods in Azerbaijan should be eliminated. If normal relations are established, we’ll be able to speak of a compromise.
By Ofelya Hovhannisyan
