Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13
By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:
The Armenian leadership, holding a meeting of the country's Security Council in Nagorno-Karabakh, is trying to hide its problems, political analyst Arzu Naghiyev told Trend.
Naghiyev said that recent steps taken by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan are inadequate.
"Since the beginning of the conflict, so far, Armenia has never held any meetings of the Security Council outside the country. This time the meeting of the Council under the leadership of Pashinyan was held on the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, in Khankendi," Naghiyev noted.
The political analyst stressed that this step of Pashinyan is a move that is designed for both domestic and foreign policy.
"Because, in April, it is one year since Pashinyan came to power. He should speak regarding the ongoing domestic and foreign policy. It is known that the arrest of the former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan, the stagnation of the economy and other issues put Pashinyan in a hopeless situation. In this situation, what will the Prime Minister report on? This means that the "Karabakh card" will be played again. Pashinyan and his team, using this card, strive to calm both their citizens and the separatist regime," he added.
The analyst noted that there are a number of aspects.
"Following the recent statement by co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group that the format of negotiations on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is unchanged, the Armenian leadership went to Nagorno-Karabakh to discuss this issue. Moreover, Pashinyan has repeatedly stated that he is the Prime Minister of Armenia, and no “representative” of the separatist regime established in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan will allow him to speak on their behalf. Therefore, he allegedly went to Khankendi to get a mandate on this matter. And how is it that the Armenian soldiers are doing military service in the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, continue their aggressive policy towards Azerbaijan? If it were as Pashinyan says, Armenian soldiers should have been withdrawn from Nagorno-Karabakh," the analyst added.
The political analyst noted that Azerbaijan will always strive to ensure its territorial integrity and continue negotiations to resolve the conflict.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.