Baku categorically refuses to recognize itself as a pawn in a big game
In Baku, the renewed hostilities are persistently called a “patriotic war” and do not want to hear anything about the fact that only the West benefits from returning the Karabakh conflict to the hot phase, provoking another zone of instability around Russia.
Thus, the TV channel “Russia 1” on air “60 minutes” gave both sides of the confrontation an opportunity to speak out, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“There is an escalation of tension at the front, what’s new – Azerbaijan carried out air and artillery strikes, there are casualties,” said Lieutenant General Vagharshak Harutyunyan, chief adviser to the Prime Minister of Armenia, the country’s ex-Ministry of Defense. – There is an escalation, new types of weapons are being used. Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia have not yet used missile systems and others, but the intensity is increasing, and it will increase, because from the statements and actions of the troops that we observe, we see that the escalation will continue,”
“When we talk about Karabakh, this is already in the past, because a new geopolitical situation has emerged, and Turkey is already the main factor of action here. Because we all understand that today Turkey is solving its geopolitical problems in Karabakh.
You talked about Belarus, and now we are talking about Nagorno-Karabakh - these are links in one chain, in each region aimed at fighting for leadership, in particular, here Turkey is fighting for its leadership, but in general all this is directed against Russia, today this is the geopolitical situation “, the Armenian representative emphasized.
According to him, conflict resolution is the exclusion of third party intervention, and then discussions at the negotiating table, but Azerbaijan today is acting according to Turkey’s military plans.
“But the experience of 1994 showed that this came when the Azerbaijani side itself asked for a truce, a military-political balance came, and then this agreement was signed. Today, Turkey violates this balance and, in pursuit of its goals, pushes for further hostilities, and most importantly, it uses Azerbaijan for this, and Azerbaijanis are dying for the sake of Turkey’s interests,” added Harutyunyan.
In turn, the head of the sector for work with foreign media of the presidential administration of Azerbaijan, Fuad Akhundov, began to categorically deny everything his opponent said.
“I deeply doubt the information, at least before the broadcast, we did not launch any strikes on Armenia, this is a principled position. There are a lot of substitutions of concepts. We are not fighting against the people of Armenia, not against Nagorno-Karabakh. We have the position of a normal, average member state of the UN Security Council, international law is on our side...
Also, about Turkey. We have 20 percent of our territory occupied; in 1943, the enemy occupied 9 percent of the territory of the USSR, and it was the Great Patriotic War, and we all, Russians, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, fought. Now we have 20 percent occupied, what are the questions? For us, this is a great patriotic war that has been going on for 30 years. They were just shooting before, but now it was a heavy blow.
Just as two months ago Lavrov said that the Armenians wanted to advance 15 kilometers and seize another post, then our president warned Pashinyan that once again there would be a worthy response. It happened again, less than 2 months later, do they need another 15 kilometers, 20 percent is not enough? This is all some kind of provocation, this is not against Turkey, not against Russia - what does Russia have to do with it?” – said Akhundov.
“Literally 20 minutes ago, a message came from Ankara: Turkey is ready to support Azerbaijan - both at the negotiating table and on the battlefield. Will you accept such help, do you admit that Turkish soldiers can fight with you against Armenia?” – asked TV presenter Evgeny Popov.
“When the Great Patriotic War was going on in 1943, everyone, including figures like Rachmaninov, said that we were ready to fight in our homeland. And if there are some Turkic ones - we are fraternal peoples, they say this, we understand it, but our army is self-sufficient. Not a single Turkish officer and not a single Turkish soldier fights with us,” the Azerbaijani official replied.
Baku categorically refuses to acknowledge itself as a pawn in a larger game.