Since the signing of the November trilateral statement last year, the Azerbaijani opposition has been skeptical about Russia’s role in the conflict resolution, accusing Russia and its peacekeeping mission in Nagorno-Karbkh of siding with Armenia.
Yesterday Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev first time since last year’s war, questioned the Russia’s military aid and Russian peacekeeper’s work in Nagorno-Karabakh.
In an interview with CNN Turk on August 14, Aliyev described Russia as a “close ally” to Armenia and said Azerbaijan was expecting Russia not to arm Armenia.
“We hope that Russia does not arm Armenia because there is no need for that,” Aliyev said.
“The war is over. The people of Armenia have come to terms with this situation. The Armenian government has also come to terms with its own defeat and the recent parliamentary elections in Armenia showed that…Under such circumstances, of course, it does not make any sense to arm Armenia. We do not see it happening yet, but there have been some statements by Russia.”
Aliyev described as “worrying” Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu’s statement on August 11 that “the process of arms supply to Armenia has kicked off.” Aliyev reminded Armenian Defence Minister Arshak Karapetyan’s statement during the meeting with Shoygu that if the Azerbaijani side trespassed the Armenian border by one centimeter, then they would open fire.
The president went on talking about Russia’s military aid to Armenia.
“Over the past 30 years, Russia provided Armenia with billions of dollars worth of free weapons – some of which are now on display in our Military Trophy Park – but the Armenian army has been completely dismantled.”
Aliyev also showed dissatisfaction with the work of 2,000-strong Russian peacekeepers in the Nagorno-Karabkah region in line with the November statement.
Namely, he said that Armenia was sending weapons and servicemen to Azerbaijani territories controlled by the Russian peacekeepers.
“We are also following the events in the Lachin corridor and in the areas controlled by Russian peacekeeping forces. We know the exact number of cars going to Khankandi [Karabakh’s capital city that remains under Armenian control]. Recently, there were reports in our media, including the fact that in the last month – from 11 July to 8 August, about 5,000 people left Khankandi for Armenia but did not return. About 20,000 people left the city and 15,000 people entered it. So we even know the number of people.”
Aliyev warned that if Armenia prepares for a new war, Azerbaijan will take preventive measures and crush “Armenian fascism” if its raises its head again.
Commenting on President Aliyev’s statement, head of opposition Whole Azerbaijan Popular Front Party Fuad Gahramanli said that “Ilham Aliyev’s views on this issue sound like an admission that the official state concept, which for many years presented Russia as a strategic ally, is in fact wrong.”
“From a pragmatic point of view, accepting Russia as an ally of Armenia and setting the policy accordingly is a more correct approach. Thus, bringing the military forces of a country that is an ally of Armenia to Karabakh in the name of peacekeeping is a serious military-political mistake from a strategic point of view,”Gahramanli stressed.
