Enmity has become the only driving force for Azerbaijan, political scientist Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan says.
“Aliyev sees this imitation of war as the only way after the April failure,” Melik-Shahnazaryan told a press conference today. He added, however, that neither Yerevan, nor Stepanakert will tolerate this any longer.
“There is an imitation of war, and the Azerbaijani propaganda is doing its best to demonstrate there is large-scale fighting at the line of contact,” Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan said. He said “as long as domestic turmoil continues, Aliev will be seeking for ways to use external threats to distract public attention.”
Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan is confident, however, that Azerbaijan will not be able to solve the issue by force. “Therefore, the only thing Azerbaijan can do is to create an imitation of war.”
Speaking about the response of the Armenian side, the political scientist said “Azerbaijan’s actions force Armenia to choose between the military and diplomatic options to restrain aggression, which will inevitably result in further escalation of tension.”
He noted that “the Armenian Armed Forces are quick to spot, respond to and eliminate the potential threats, which was not the case in April last year.”
“The destabilized situation can go dangerous and get out of control for any stakeholder in our region. I don’t think that anyone, except Turkey, will give a nod to Azerbaijan’s plans to start war. Even if Turkey gives its consent, it cannot provide Azerbaijan with guarantees, because Turkey also sees it in a hard situation because of both developments in the Middle East and processes inside the country.”
The political scientist said “we should never ignore the potential threats from Azerbaijan.” Therefore, he added, “we must be ready for war in order not to allow that war happen.”