ArmInfo.The main reason for the current military escalation on the border of Armenia and Azerbaijan is the cancellation of the trilateral online meeting of the leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan, announced by press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation. Director of the Caucasus Institute Alexander Iskandaryan expressed a similar opinion to ArmInfo.
"In my opinion, all the latest aggressive actions of Azerbaijan are caused precisely by the disruption of this meeting and, accordingly, everything that could or should have been discussed at this meeting. Baku's motivation, starting from May of this year, also remains the same. Azerbaijan through military pressure on Armenia seeks to get, in fact, an extraterritorial corridor to Nakhichevan through the territory of Armenia. And of course, through the demarcation and delimitation of the border with the recognition of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, to finally close the issue of Artsakh, "he stressed.
After shelling the positions of the Armenian Armed Forces in the eastern direction, Azerbaijan on November 14 launched another round of escalation in the conflict with Armenia. On November 16, units of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces attacked Armenian positions with artillery, armored vehicles and small arms in the same direction, infiltrating the territory of Armenia. As a result of local battles, both sides have losses. The clashes ended at 6:30pm, according to the agreement reached with the mediation of the Russian side.
It is within the framework of this logic, according to Iskandaryan, that Baku continues in all possible ways, including through military escalation, to put pressure on Yerevan in order to achieve its goals. He assessed the current situation as a rather large exacerbation, in response to which the CSTO and the Russian Federation are unlikely to respond with military intervention, preferring to stop the escalation by diplomatic means. A similar reaction, in his opinion, should be expected from the UN Security Council, if Yerevan, of course, decides to apply there as well.
"There is a low-intensity conflict. It is rather difficult to imagine a large-scale war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. But, unfortunately, I do not see the tools and mechanisms for the final cessation of periodic actions of this kind performed by Baku. As a rule, all this ends with territorial concessions of Armenia, and Azerbaijan continues to bite off pieces of territory. But in my opinion, legal agreements that can fix such actions on paper should not be expected in the near future, "Iskandaryan summed up.