Thursday, May 27 2021 12:51

ArmInfo. There is stalemate on the borders of Armenia amid the disproportionate reaction of the Armenian authorities to the encroachments of Azerbaijan towards the  sovereign territories of the Republic of Armenia.

Tensions on the Armenian borders persist even 7 months after the  signing of a trilateral ceasefire statement in the Nagorno-Karabakh  conflict zone by the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia. The  inaction of the Armenian authorities, constant concessions to  Azerbaijan and the inability to strengthen their state borders in  time led to the fact that on May 12 the Azerbaijani Armed Forces  illegally invaded the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia  in the Syunik region of the Republic of Armenia, advanced 3.5 km and  entrenched at a strategic point in the Black Lake region. ... Not  meeting a proper rebuff, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces launched  another provocation on May 13 in the Gegharkunik region of the  Republic of Armenia in the direction of Verin Shorzha of the Vardenis  community - another 2 km.  Instead of giving a tough rebuff to the  enemy invasion, the RA authorities decided to resolve the situation  through political and diplomatic means, and culturally asked the  Azerbaijani military to leave. Naturally, these requests were ignored  by the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan, which are already quite  comfortably located in the territories of the Republic of Armenia,  and are already "mastering" our country thanks to the silent inaction  of both the RA leadership and the international community.

But, and this did not end the matter, having settled well, the  Azerbaijani forces have already begun to resort to provocations in  the Armenian territories, and as a result of one of them, an Armenian  contract soldier was killed on May 25. Seeing that it got away with  it, Azerbaijan already today, without disdaining anything, took  prisoners 6 Armenian servicemen carrying out engineering work in the  Gegharkunik region of the Republic of Armenia.

And apparently, in such conditions, when the sovereign territories of  the country and the citizens of the Republic of Armenia are in  danger, the Armed Forces, headed by its command, must respond  toughly. But, as it turned out, the Armenian defense department only  denied the statement of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense and  published the lists of the captured soldiers.

The Armenian parliamentarians went a little further. So, for example,  the head of the parliamentary faction of the ruling bloc "My Step"  Lilit Makunts from the rostrum of the parliament, commenting on this  situation, assured that what happened to the six Armenian servicemen  cannot be called captivity, since it is a matter of kidnapping. In  this regard, she decided to shift all responsibility for the current  situation onto international partners. "And this happens when our  international partners, and indeed all partners, do not give any  clear assessments and do not call things by their proper names. I  call on all partners of Armenia to give concrete and clear  assessments of Azerbaijan's actions without fail. Armenian society  has expectations that the CSTO will react very quickly to what is  happening, "Makunts said.

Naira Zohrabyan, MP from the Prosperous Armenia Party, also reacted  to the situation, criticizing the current government and the Ministry  of Defense. According to her, the republic's defense department is  constantly inactive, and Baku reacts to all provocations only with  verbal threats.  "The Azerbaijanis entered and captured six Armenian  servicemen in the protected territory of the Republic of Armenia. And  the Ministry of Defense confirmed this, otherwise we would have no  reason to believe that the Azerbaijanis entered the protected  territory of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia, located on  its territory, and abducted the servicemen. This cannot be called  anything other than a catastrophe, "Zohrabyan stated, stressing that  this can no longer be tolerated.

"This catastrophe must be stopped. The statements of the Ministry of  Defense of Armenia and their inaction testify only to the fact that  this power came with coffins, surrendered Karabakh, and now their  power is threat to the territorial integrity of Armenia. And after  all this you say that we have a future. I am afraid to even think  about this future with you, "the parliamentarian stressed.

Lilit Makunts suddenly reacted to these statements by Zohrabyan, who  called everyone to restrain and avoid propaganda of hatred.

Such behavior of those in power in Armenia raises many questions. The  calm behavior of the authorities is discouraging, which in the  current situation, instead of emergency meetings and looking for a  way out of the current situation, which threatens to result in a  national catastrophe, continue to calmly discuss the agenda developed  last year. A careless discussion of reforms in education, healthcare  and other sectors against the backdrop of encroachments on the  sovereignty of Armenia involuntarily makes one think about the  purposefulness and planning of all these steps on the part of the  current government, which can already be said with confidence that it  is not acting in the interests of the Republic of Armenia and its   citizens.