The US embassy in Azerbaijan responded to the statement of Hikmet Hajiyev, assistant to the Azerbaijani president on foreign policy, that the ambassadors of the United States and France to Azerbaijan ignored the invitation of the Azerbaijani government to visit Shush. In the text of the statement, there is no mention of Shushi again. Still, it is noted that the employees of the United States of America embassy have visited many times and continue to visit all regions of Azerbaijan, including Aghdam, Zangelan, and Fizuli.
In a conversation with Radar Armenia, political scientist Armen Baghdasaryan interprets why the US and French ambassadors did not visit Shushi in Azerbaijan. Shushi was not mentioned in the statement of the US Embassy in Azerbaijan as follows: "The US and France distinguish Shushi from Aghdam and Fizuli because Shushi is located in the former Nagorno-Karabakh region."
According to Baghdasaryan, they want to emphasize that, in any case, there is a question of the status of Karabakh and the status of former Nagorno-Karabakh.
"We should perceive this not as a pro-Armenian step, or as a démarche to Azerbaijan or Russia, but simply as a reality that the West was pushed out of this process in two years and is now trying to return its participation in the processes," says the political scientist and simplifies the wording. If the Armenian side has lost and a new status quo has been established in the region, the West is trying to expect its share of profit from it.
The political scientist observes the incident in the context of tense relations between the West and the Russian-Turkish-Azerbaijani triangle.
"In Armenia and Artsakh, they should not be too excited about it. It is not about that they will come to protect the Armenian interest. Still, they are coming to snatch their share of interest from Armenia's defeat, naturally at the expense of our interests," said political scientist Armen Baghdasaryan.
To remind, on August 27, the assistant to the Azerbaijani president for foreign policy, Hikmet Hajiyev, stated in Shushi that the US and French ambassadors in Azerbaijan "blatantly ignored the invitation of the Azerbaijani government to visit Shushi" and that the rejection of the invitation was a non-recognition of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan by the US and France. was qualified.
Hayk Magoyan
