Tuesday, November 23 2021 13:25

ArmInfo.t seems not possible to reach an agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the current conditions, against the backdrop of a complex of existing  contradictions and disagreements in the understanding by the parties  to the conflict of the proposed conditions for the settlement of  relations. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Orientalist,  Professor David Hovhannisyan expressed a similar opinion to ArmInfo.  

"To date, the parties to the conflict, mediated by the Russian  Federation, are discussing two major problems. The first of them, the  unblocking of communications, is viewed by one side  (Azerbaijan) as  a corridor with signs of extraterritoriality, and by the other side   (Armenia)  exclusively as a road through its territory. The second  problem, that is, the process of delimitation and demarcation of  borders between the two countries with their further mutual  recognition, is also the subject of serious disagreements between  Yerevan and Baku," he stressed.

In the professor's opinion, these problems are extremely important  for Armenia, since the future of the country and its statehood  largely depends on them. However, according to Hovhannisyan, no less  important task is to preserve the remaining Armenian part of Artsakh  in its present form. And the return to their homeland of Armenian  prisoners of war from Azerbaijan is generally a matter of honor for  Armenia.

According to Hovhannisyan, against this background, Azerbaijan  pursues interests that are directly opposite to those of Armenia in  matters of the corridor and determination of borders. For example, in  the issue of Artsakh, the main goal of Baku is ethnic cleansing,  through which Artsakh will turn into a territory without Armenians.   He also noted as an important task of Azerbaijan the acquisition of a  corridor through Syunik and the definition through the process of  delimitation and demarcation of a number of territories of Armenia as  Azerbaijani.  

Noting that the Armenian society has no illusions about the  possibility of establishing a full-fledged peace with Azerbaijan  following the defeat of Armenia in the 44-day war, the professor  described the current state of society as disoriented. "We do not  know whom to believe, whom to trust, in what world we live and,  accordingly, from whom and what to expect. All this, in turn, is the  result of global, geopolitical transformations observed in the  world," he said. Hovhannisyan assesses the trilateral statements of  November 9, 2020 and January 11, 2021 as situational and aimed at the  earliest possible achievement of a ceasefire and massacre in Artsakh.   According to him, this is evidenced, among other things, by the  presence of goals in the texts of documents, against the background  of the absence of ways and conditions on which these goals should be  achieved. In other words, according to the professor, all these  questions were left for the future.  

"Acknowledging all these realities, it should be noted that the path  towards achieving the goals mentioned in the statements is very  difficult. Azerbaijan's military aggression against Armenia on  November 16 is due precisely to the complexity and roughness of this  very path. Accordingly, unfortunately, we have to admit that the  clashes on the border will continue. And the problems that Baku will  try to solve by putting military pressure on Yerevan will always  exist. At least until the parties have completed the path outlined by  the two trilateral statements, " Hovhannisyan summed up.