ArmInfo. Azerbaijan makes very harsh statements, "shoots" from time to time, however it does not leave the negotiation process. This was stated at a press conference by the Director of the Caucasus Institute, political scientist Alexander Iskandaryan.
"Azerbaijan's current position is as follows: to remain in the negotiation process, to use harsh rhetoric, and to continue what is going on within the framework of the Karabakh conflict," the expert said, noting that the leadership of Azerbaijan simultaneously states that they are not satisfied with the current situation in Karabakh, but at the same time, Mammadyarov announces the next meeting with the Armenian Foreign Minister at the beginning of next year, apparently at the end of January.
Speaking about the holding of early parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan scheduled for February 2020, Iskandaryan said that the Karabakh issue within Azerbaijan has always been a factor of consolidation, noting that the conflict is instrumental and convenient in its specificity, as it consolidates the country's elite and population.
"The upcoming elections for Azerbaijan are quite important, important not in the sense that we do not know who will be elected and how these elections will be won and who will win, but in the sense that serious political processes are taking place there, which, apparently, are connected with the strengthening of one group against another within the Azerbaijani elite.
These are processes that require some consolidation. This is what dictates that Azerbaijan now needs rigidity. Usually, before such events as elections, harsh statements are made and this is happening now", Iskandaryan said, recalling also the presidential and parliamentary elections in Nagorno-Karabakh, noting that in this regard, hard discourses will also sound in Armenia.