BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 22. The final defeat of Armenian separatists in Karabakh was swift and sudden, the EU Reporter website said in an article devoted to the recent anti-terrorist activities of the Azerbaijani Army in Karabakh, Trend reports.
"By agreeing to surrender their weapons, Armenian rebels in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan have ended their attempt to create a breakaway state. Although a so-called ‘frozen conflict’ enabled them to hold out for decades, their final defeat was swift, sudden, and ultimately inevitable in the face of Azerbaijan’s determination to reassert sovereignty over its sovereign territory," the EU Reporter said.
According to the article, the entire international community has always recognized Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan.
"Ever since the fighting in 2020, Azerbaijan has been entirely clear that it would not accept any alternative to the complete reintegration of the whole of Karabakh. Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to the European Union, Vaqif Sadiqov, pointed out that the Armenian military had to lay down their arms and surrender “or face the consequences”, adding that this was as true for Azerbaijan as it would be for any other country facing a similar threat to its sovereignty. Prime Minister Pashinyan cuts a forlorn figure. Defeated when Azerbaijan liberated most of the occupied territory in 2020, he has explicitly recognized that Armenia has no legitimate claim to Azerbaijani territory and implicitly that his country has run out of allies in aiding the rebels," the EU Reporter added.
Further, the article notes that Azerbaijan now faces the task of successfully reintegrating the Armenian residents of Karabakh.
"For the EU in particular, it’s time to not just seek a stable partner in Azerbaijan as a supplier of oil and gas but to support stability and peace throughout the South Caucasus. It’s a region of crucial importance both in its own right and as a trade route between Europe and Asia. A peace treaty, with the reopening of borders to trade and cooperation, is a prize that will take patience and perseverance, though better that form of patience than tolerating a frozen conflict for decades, quietly hoping that it will never end," the reporter noted.