During the presidential elections, Ilham Aliyev announced that there has been actual peace on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border for several months. It was breached on February 12th. Baku announced that a soldier of border guard troops was injured by a shot fired from Armenian positions in the direction of Inner Hand. The report of the Military Police of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia regarding the incident was, to put it mildly, subtextual. Today, the command of the border guard troops of Azerbaijan announced to carry out a “revenge operation”.
The Armenian side actually promised to conduct an investigation, find out the circumstances and, if it was confirmed that there was a violation of the order not to open fire, to bring the culprits to justice. According to the official report, the life of the Azerbaijani “wounded soldier” is not in danger. The “response” of the Azerbaijani side is thus disproportionate and aimed at aggravating the situation. The name “act of revenge” is ominous.
Azerbaijan put that wording into use in 2022. on August 3, when “the route of Lachin Corridor was changing” in Nagorno-Karabakh. Basically, it was an announcement of a political decision to solve the problem by military means, after which the situation went out of control. The aggravation in the Inner Hand region followed the expulsion of the European Union ambassador to Baku by the MFA. The message spread by the Azerbaijani side about it calls the Armenian-Azerbaijani border the observation zone of the EU mission.
It turns out that Aliyev reminds of the precedent of settling problems in the area of ​​responsibility of the Russian military group by force and the threat of force and makes it clear that the presence of the EU observation mission on the border with Armenia is not a practical guarantee of “actual peace”. Is that a decision of his caliber? The statement of the command of the border guards of Azerbaijan assures that “the provocations of the Armenian side will receive a stricter response from now on.”
Announcing that “there will be provocations” and making threats from the Armenian side means that Baku has a plan to tense the border situation, the main political goal of which is, perhaps, the discrediting and delegitimization of the European Union’s observation mission in the sense that Aliyev says, “no no one can help Armenia.” Moreover, he has repeatedly stated that the European observers do not contribute to the stabilization of the situation, on the contrary, they “create additional complications”.
Has Aliyev violated the “virtual peace”? The relevant bodies of Armenia did not clarify who is the Czech citizen who crossed the territory of Azerbaijan, how did he bypass the defense line, is the information spread by Baku true, etc.? And why do some representatives of the ruling political force make incompetent statements about Armenia’s “armament” while simultaneously pointing arrows at Moscow and creating diplomatic “inconveniences” in terms of Iran?
#broke #virtual #peace #1in.am