BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec.24
Trend:
Changing the status quo in Karabakh without significant international side effects is a real success of Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, Valdis Zatlers, former president of Latvia, Member of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, told Trend.
“Almost thirty long years have passed since Armenian occupation of Azerbaijan’s territories and ethnic cleansing in Karabakh emerged a huge number of Azerbaijani IDPs. Not too many changes took place in status quo after the Armenian-Azerbaijan conflict was cooled down and the international community named it a frozen conflict.
Neither UN resolutions, Madrid principles nor Minsk group activities reached any progress. Talks about necessity to avoid military conflict and to use diplomatic measures to resolve the conflict and restore Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity lasted for decades.
That was the usual practice of international diplomacy. At the same time, we saw some other countries trying to fulfill their political goals by using military force. But very often those goals were not reached, and we got a new devastating proxy wars in the international arena. Changing the status quo in Karabakh without significant international side effects is a real success of Azerbaijan and especially President Aliyev as a national leader,” said the former president.
Zatlers believes that what is even more important - the new realities will be respected.
“This year’s military and political victory was based on very thorough military preparations which took place for many years. Investments in modern war technologies, training of armed forces, strategic and tactical planning are the key elements of military success. But the main element was patience to wait for the most adequate international background to implement the military action that was very well prepared before the definite action was triggered. Although Azerbaijan has gained a lot from the outcome of the second Karabakh war, the big game is not over yet. It is very important for Azerbaijan to create definite internal and international policies to foster the success of military victory.
That means investments, infrastructure and support programs. The task is to rapidly intensify economic collaboration with Turkey and Georgia. It is so important to provide the image of a country living in peace and open to productive economic relationships. Due to the internal situation in Armenia and the conditions of ceasefire we cannot expect true improvement of relations with Armenia in nearest future. But developing of possible policies which could help normalizing the relationship should not be delayed,” added the former president.