Radar Armenia's interlocutor is Shahan Gantaharyan, an international scholar.
- Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan, Hikmet Hajiyev, referring to the Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations, noted that there is no war factor between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Do these statements reduce the possibility of Azerbaijan's aggressive actions towards Armenia?
- Azerbaijan always makes contradictory statements; its habit is negotiating with one hand and shooting with the other. Indeed, it is not shooting now, but it is torpedoing the process. This is due to Fidan's latest statement that "a glimmer of hope has appeared" in the South Caucasus.
- On the other hand, Azerbaijan continues to talk about the Armenian constitution as if there are territorial demands directed at Azerbaijan. Where is Azerbaijan, speaking with double standards, actually leading the peace process?
- Yes, double; he speaks with multiple standards. The constitution is more pretextual for Baku. The actual intrigue, the turning point, is the problem of the corridor. The Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem is conditioning the peace process with this, talking about the entire region's blockade and the region's peace. They want to say that the corridor will fundamentally solve the problems. This has turned into a precondition policy, which is that the rest of the statements are not so significant. Apart from the corridor, other issues have a derivative status.
- The Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan also stated that one of the obstacles to achieving peace is that the members of the Armenian delegation come from different positions at the negotiation table. How do you interpret this statement? What does the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan mean?
- By saying "different positions" without opening the parentheses, Baku refers to different ideas about the corridor from Yerevan, including handing over the function of monitoring road safety to a private foreign organization. Two obstacles are put forward: the constitution and the Armenian side's position regarding the corridor.
- Do you see a chance to achieve peace in the end? Under what circumstances will Azerbaijan sign the contract?
- I think Azerbaijan will go to peace only under the pressure of Ankara. Ankara has yet to reach that conclusion. It makes his negotiations with Yerevan conditional on the Yerevan-Baku agreement. When the moment comes, the roles will be reversed, and Ankara will order Baku to act as it decides. If the West decides that they should work more vigorously in the direction of expelling the Russian factor, then the roads of Syunik will work without Russian control. In that case, the control service component remains to be specified. Further, the agreement with Azerbaijan will be followed by opening the border with Turkey. After the opening of the border, questions about the necessity of the Russian military base will begin to be discussed.
Regional geopolitics should be considered to contain the weight of slowing down, suspending, or gaining momentum in pushing out the Russian factor. The effects of these trends will be recorded in relations between Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey.
Hayk Magoyan
