BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 26. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan while speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York touched on the delimitation maps as well as the recent tensions on the border and Armenia’s lack of military support from its allies, Trend reports.
Much of Pashinyan's 20-minute speech focused on President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev’s statement on delimitation maps during his visit to Lachin.
President Ilham Aliyev’s speech in Lachin and Pashinyan’s fear-filled confession at the UN.
“After the end of the Second Karabakh War, Azerbaijan came to the borders. If Armenia is trying to accuse Azerbaijan of invading their territory, this has no basis. First, if the border was where they say it was, then Armenia would have laid the border, created border lines, and communications, and conducted engineering works. Armenia thought that all of Karabakh and Zangazur would stay with them. That's why they didn't do any work on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border. That is, without delimitating the border, no one will be able to say where it runs from. Once again, I would like to say that Azerbaijan is ready for discussions and it takes the Azerbaijani-Armenian delimitation commissions responsibly. I want to say once again that Azerbaijan has collected the maps of the previous period, including those of the XIX and XX centuries, and these maps openly show who is on what land. So without delimitation, no one can accuse Azerbaijan," President Ilham Aliyev said.
From what the Armenian Prime Minister said from the UN podium, it’s clear that President Ilham Aliyev's speech caused him serious concern, literally frightening him. Pashinyan's speech made it clear that he doesn't know exactly where the borders of the country he represents begin and end. If Pashinyan didn't have concerns and fears about Armenia's historical past, and its ‘borders’ in the XIX century, he wouldn't have addressed his question to President Ilham Aliyev.
“I ask an official and public question to the President of Azerbaijan: can you show me the map of Armenia, which you recognize or are ready to recognize as the Republic of Armenia? Why do I ask this question? Because it may turn out that from the point of view of Azerbaijani officials only half of Armenia and even less is the Republic of Armenia," Pashinyan said.
Thus, the Armenian Prime Minister acknowledged that the territories in which Armenia currently exists, including the capital Yerevan, were once the lands of Azerbaijan. Pashinyan knows that Azerbaijan can prove this with historical maps and documents. For this reason, Pashinyan is interested in having the delimitation carried out on maps dating back to the period of independence, which is what he said during his speech at the UN.
“If Azerbaijan would recognize the territorial integrity of Armenia not theoretically but actually, I mean the integrity of Armenia internationally recognized territory of 29,800 square kilometers, it would mean that Armenia could sign a peace treaty," he said.
As President Ilham Aliyev said in his speech after raising Azerbaijani flag in Lachin, Azerbaijan prepared both maps of the XX century as well as maps of the XIX century and worked on the delimitation of these maps is being carried out.
Azerbaijan's Resolute Position and Armenia's new provocative plan.
Pashinyan's speech on delimitation maps full of fear reinforces the assumption that Armenia isn’t interested in the delimitation process and will seek to delay the process. What does Armenia need to delay this process? A pretext for new military provocations, of course.
It's clear from Pashinyan’s speech at the UN that Armenia is interested in new provocations. His accusation of Azerbaijan’s ‘attack on Armenia’s territory’ and a statement about a ‘threat of a new attack’ raise the possibility that Armenia is working on implementing new provocation. Let’s remember that during the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, speaking about the geopolitical processes in the world, Pashinyan said that tensions could arise in the South Caucasus and at the same time the Armenian side was intensively violating the ceasefire on the border.
A few days after his return from Vladivostok, the Armenian army attempted a large-scale provocation on the border with Azerbaijan and was forced to retreat because it received a harsh response. Pashinyan seems to want to repeat the events that occurred in the first half of September. He is sending a message with military tension from both New York and Vladivostok, and amid that the Armenian side is violating the ceasefire almost every day.
The news about a ‘new war’ circulated by the Armenian media, Armenia's negotiations about the urgent purchase of weapons from Western countries, as well as the involvement of ordinary citizens in military exercises and their training in combat skills, show that Armenia is preparing for revenge. Amid Armenia's military preparations, Pashinyan's speech at the UN raises the possibility of military provocation. It appears that Armenia is deliberately violating the ceasefire while Pashinyan is in New York in order to encourage Azerbaijan to retaliate and draw the attention of Armenia's Western protectors to the region by making Azerbaijan look like an ‘aggressor’.
Pashinyan’s messages from the UN and attempts to evade punishment from Russian officials.
Pashinyan while speaking at the UN General Assembly also complained about the indifference of allies to the issue of Armenia's security, saying that Armenian society has developed a distrust of the military bloc of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), of which the country is a member.
“This situation raised many questions in Armenian society,” he said.
Despite the fact that Armenia after the latest military clashes on the border asked for help from the CSTO, the organization was content to send a mission to the border. The dissatisfaction of the CSTO with the request for military assistance caused protests in Armenia. The protesters demand that Armenian officials withdraw from the CSTO. It’s clear from the processes in the region and Yerevan's political behavior that Moscow is the addressee of Pashinyan’s remarks about allies in the CSTO from the UN podium
As Armenia's military ally hasn’t lived up to its expectations, the resentment of Armenian society against Russia has grown. Pashinyan is trying to capitalize on this by sending a message to Russia that ‘the Armenian people demand withdrawal from the military bloc, which has not fulfilled its obligations to the country. Pashinyan is emphasizing the position of society rather than his own on this issue, trying to show that calls to leave the military bloc are a social order. Pashinyan wants to protect himself from the anger of Russian officials by shifting the responsibility to the Armenian society.
Pashinyan also acknowledged through his statements at the UN about allies that neither his team nor Armenian society believes in the Russian military and political institutions and that Armenia has already turned to the West. But what military, economic, and political resources does Armenia's political leadership relies on to go against its master?
Pashinyan's fiery speech at the UN seems to have been motivated by promises of the military, political, and economic aid from U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a couple of standard statements from Europe during the border tensions. However, the reality is quite different. Armenia is a state dependent on Russia both politically, militarily and economically, and its move toward hostile relations with Russia is nothing more than a suicide attempt. Armenia is isolated in the region, doesn’t give up its territorial claims against Azerbaijan, and evades the delimitation of borders and the construction of the Zangazur corridor, which in general doesn’t bode well for the Armenian state and its people.