Azerbaijani Authorities Face a Big Temptation: Ruben Safrastyan

“What Azerbaijan does now, totally derives from geo-political situation, developing both in the world and in the region. If we look into the issue, we’ll see that violence in the world, as a means of settling problems, is occupying more and more place. Its manifestation is generally observed in the Middle East, where violence has become a widely spread means to reach political purposes. Basically, Azerbaijan continues the main tendency, which has currently been developed both in the world and in the region,” Ruben Safrastyan, Head of Department of Turkish Studies, Institute of Oriental Studies, Armenian National Academy of Sciences, told reporters today.

Touching upon Azerbaijan’s close ally—Turkey, he stated, that recently Turkey, despite considerable loses, obtained what it was striving to, “For instance, EU-Turkey deal, criticized by lots of socio-political circles of EU member countries, was recognized by Merkel as an operating agreement, and Turkey obtained its first billion. No matter how hard Turkey’s integration in Syrian processes has been touched upon and criticized, Turkey, basically, pursues its policy. Turkey continues to support extremist groupings, active in the territory of Syria. Transfer of military equipment from the territory of Turkey to Syria is still in process. And I consider, Azerbaijani authorities face a big temptation, it sees what its ally does, and everything “is getting by,” that’s why it decided to choose a new tactics regarding Karabakh issue.”

He stressed, what happened and still is in process, isn’t accidental, “It’s conditioned not only by assessments of a moment, but Azerbaijani authorities simply intended to choose a new strategy, essence of which is the following: to exert more and more pressure over Armenia, and that pressure is applied militarily. Azerbaijani aggression won’t stop. We may conclude that it’s a pressure by one more degree—military actions every night, and this pursues the goal of upsetting functioning of OSCE MG.” according to him, Azerbaijan and Turkey have decided that Minsk Group mediation isn’t in line with their interests and decided to stop its functioning, “They attempt to create a new negotiation format based on Turkey’s mediation, i.e. Turkey’s forced engagement with mediation process is on.”

According to R.Safrastyan, Armenia should be ready first and foremost to develop its approaches in diplomatic front, to counteract new tactics adopted by Azerbaijan.

By Razmik Martirosyan