"Fact" daily writes:
After the COP 29 climate conference, Azerbaijan switched to tougher rhetoric. And as time passes, the statements made by Baku become more aggressive.
It is even more clear that Azerbaijan is not at all interested in concluding a peace treaty. And despite the fact that he managed to reach an agreement on 90 percent of the points of the negotiation document, Aliyev constantly puts forward new demands and threatens.
Moreover, there is no guarantee that if an agreement is reached on all points, Azerbaijan will not make new demands. Apart from that, every time Aliyev utters degrading rhetoric against the Armenian people and Armenian statehood.
It turns out that Azerbaijan actually does not accept the existence of Armenia, calling it "Western Azerbaijan". If such expressions were used about another country in the world, the leadership of that country would immediately withdraw from the negotiations and take necessary measures to give a tough answer.
But this, of course, does not apply to the leadership of Armenia. While the threat of aggression against Armenia increases, Pashinyan leads such a quiet life, he has so much free time that he does not know how to spend it.
That's why he cooks, rides a bicycle, hosts a family podcast, or reads and responds to users' comments on social networks. There is an impression that there is no reason to worry about the dangers coming from Azerbaijan.
Pashinyan always responds to the complaints from Baku that they are not deviating from the peace agenda and are moving step by step towards the "era of peace".
But peace means the creation of stable guarantees for it, and in the current conditions it is meaningless to talk about such mechanisms. And the fact that Azerbaijan can start a new aggression against Armenia at any moment deserves special attention.
And the idea that relative peace has been established on the border is just a lie. The behavior of Azerbaijan has been clear for a long time, they can spread false messages at any moment, as if the Armenian side violated the ceasefire, fired, and thus started the attack.
In recent days, false reports were also spread that Armenians were shooting. But the surprising thing is that Pashinyan's failure to properly respond to Aliyev's threats is due to the fact that Azerbaijan is trying to create a legitimate basis for launching an attack, which it cannot allow. In fact, when it is needed, Azerbaijan cannot even look at the "legitimate basis".
Aliyev's statements show that he considers Armenia to be a "geographic barrier" on the way to the integration of Azerbaijan and Turkey, which for him can be considered enough to start aggression and open the so-called "Zangezur Corridor". And in response to the "Zangezur Corridor" Azerbaijan's demands, the "Crossroads of Peace" plan is circulating again from Armenia. It is clear, isn't it, that this program will remain on paper.
It is an account of nothing for Azerbaijan, because Baku does not consider Armenia as an equal party. Azerbaijan is only considering the possibility of constantly extracting concessions from Armenia.
And Pashinyan constantly sends positive signals in this direction. The last time he already spoke about the proposals to continue the demarcation process and dissolve the OSCE Minsk Group.
It is clear what maps Azerbaijan can discover in the demarcation process, as a result of which new territorial concessions will become inevitable. And the dissolution of the Minsk Group co-chairmanship institution can be a very big diplomatic victory for Azerbaijan.
It is no coincidence that Baku and Ankara have been fighting for years to dissolve the Minsk Group. Moreover, Turkey wants to become a mediator between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
And now, even though it does not work in practice, Azerbaijan and Turkey, fearing the shadow of the restoration of this format, are trying to use the right moment to get rid of it.
The representatives of the international community are talking about this right now, and in the conditions of the change in the geopolitical situation, when a ceasefire is established in the Ukrainian war and the ice in Russia-West relations begins to melt, the Minsk Group may have important things to do.
It is another matter that the RA authorities are guided by the orientation that paying tribute to the demands from Azerbaijan, they must be satisfied at any cost, and it is not important what happens next. Today, they justify their actions by the fact that the Minsk Group is not functioning. But the question is that it does not mean that it will not always work.
ARSEN SAHAKYAN
