Oppositionist: Armenia continues to be Azerbaijan`s primary concern  in external bloc

ArmInfo. Despite all the agreements reached, today Armenia continues to be Azerbaijan's primary concern in the external bloc, as stated by Tigran Abrahamyan,  a parliament member  from the opposition faction "With Honor",   during an interview with journalists.

Referring in this vein to the statement by Armenian Prime Minister  Nikol Pashinyan that the country's military spending would remain at  the same level, the deputy pointed out that, at the same time,  Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated in occupied Karvachar that  the use of force continues to be a tool for achieving goals in  international relations. "There, Aliyev confirmed that the use of  force  allowed them to occupy Artsakh. Moreover, he added that there  are no guarantees that the negotiation process with Armenia will be  resolved without the need to use force," the oppositionist noted.

Abrahamyan believes that it was no coincidence that Aliyev made such  a statement in Karvachar, as the territory borders Armenia. "In this  situation, it is necessary to remember that after the 44-day war, and  the aggression of 2021, 2022 and 2023, the country has many  shortcomings in terms of ensuring its security.  The Armenian Armed  Forces, at a minimum, had to go through a major recovery stage after  this, which was not ensured," Abrahamyan noted.

Touching upon the demarcation process on the Armenian-Azerbaijani  border, the oppositionist noted that the process in this direction  has been stalled for a year now. Additionally, he highlighted that  even in this process, Armenia has been following Azerbaijan's lead,  often at the expense of Armenia's interests,  by exclusively  satisfying Azerbaijani demands. "For instance, Azerbaijan, despite  the agreements, has failed to withdraw its troops from the territory  of Armenia. The biggest  concern in all this is that from the very  beginning Azerbaijan  has been dictating its demands. For example,  the delimitation began from the north, and not from the south, where  there are occupied Armenian territories. And there are no guarantees  that Azerbaijan will not suddenly  halt the process after achieving  its goals in Tavush, ," the oppositionist said, noting that in this  case, the already delimited territories in this direction will remain  with the Azerbaijani side, leaving the fate of the Armenian  territories uncertain. 

The deputy believes that this once again proves the discrepancy  between the actions of the Armenian authorities and their statements  and promises. After all, as Abrahamyan recalled, they had previously  assured that all processes were mutual, and by yielding to  Azerbaijan, the Armenian side would be able to achieve the return of  its territories that were under the occupation of the Azerbaijani  side. However,  this never happened, as Azerbaijan continues to  interpret the agreements reached with Armenia in its own way.  He is  confident that  the Armenian authorities created a legitimate basis  for meeting Azerbaijan's demands.  In this regard, the deputy does  not deny that one day, as a result of new negotiations "behind closed  doors", it will turn out that occupied Artsvashen is also "really  Azerbaijani". "And to achieve this goal, I have no doubt that the  authorities will again begin to intimidate the people with war to  avoid a large-scale public protest," the deputy concluded.