Radar Armenia's interlocutor is political scientist Armen Vardanyan.
- The CSTO proposed complex measures to help Armenia, including sending a mission to the border with Azerbaijan to assess the situation. Stanislav Zas made such a statement, noting that the only thing that could not be achieved was a consolidated assessment of the created situation. How would you interpret Zas's information?
- After the military aggression of September 13-14, the CSTO had already sent a fact-finding mission to Armenia, which had carried out a fact-finding mission on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. It makes no sense to send a fact-finding group again, especially since the CSTO refuses to make a political assessment and is taking time, trying to maneuver, avoiding fulfilling its actual duties.
- What are your expectations? Should we expect a political assessment from CSTO? And what will that assessment give?
- I think CSTO will avoid making a political assessment because this structure has already shown that it is an inefficient and amorphous organization. The member states of this organization are more allied with Azerbaijan than with Armenia. So, Ilham Aliyev's claim that "Azerbaijan has more allies in the CSTO than Armenia" is a reality. And at the CSTO Yerevan summit, we saw that the president of Belarus clearly showed with his statements that Azerbaijan is more important for Belarus than Armenia. But it should be noted that Lukashenko is not the only one of that opinion. Other member countries agree. No organization member will enter into a conflict with Azerbaijan for the sake of Armenia. Even at the level of statements, they do not want to create problems for Azerbaijan.
- In this context, Aliyev continues to make belligerent statements. In your opinion, can the political assessment restrain aggressive Azerbaijan?
- Aliyev touched the pulse of CSTO a long time ago. Aliyev knows very well that the CSTO will not take any practical steps to help Armenia and restrain Azerbaijan. That is why he makes belligerent statements and not only that. It also carries out aggression against Armenia. He knows very well about the possible reaction of CSTO and has no concerns about it.
- The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan asks the Russian peacekeepers carrying out a mission in Artsakh not to use the name "Nagorno-Karabakh." What is this talking about? Why does the term "NKR" bother Azerbaijan?
-Azerbaijan has already announced that the Karabakh conflict has been resolved and is trying to form an official discourse in which the term "Nagorno-Karabakh" should not be used. He also tries to exclude this in the speech of the Russian peacekeepers stationed in Nagorno-Karabakh. But in the messages and announcements, we see that the wording "Nagorno-Karabakh" is used. Azerbaijan is also trying to prevent Russian peacekeepers from using the place names of Nagorno-Karabakh. This indicates that Azerbaijan is trying to send the Karabakh conflict to the dustbin of history, also achieving that those place names and terms are not used in an official speech.
Hayk Magoyan
