Ara Papyan says Karabakh edging closer to a full-fledged war next year

Panorama, Armenia

No full-fledged war is expected this year, yet the possibility of war rises over the time, since Azerbaijan needs the time to realize the accumulated armament until the next escalation, political scientist Ara Papyan told a press conference on Saturday, adding Azerbaijan at the same time is not interested in a full-scale war across the whole Line of Contact, instead preferring three-day or four-day exhausting military actions.

To Papyan’s conviction, Azerbaijan is definitely opting for solving the Karabakh conflict through military mean as evidenced by the warmongering rhetoric of Azerbaijani president who uses the term “Azerbaijani historical lands” in reference to not only Artsakh but also Armenia. 

The speaker next reflected on Russia’s sale of weaponry to Azerbaijan. “Russia should declare Armenia not an allied state in order for us to determine our future actions. Interestingly, Russians want us to treat them as an ally, resent over the fact Armenia refuses to grant a state status to the Russian, while at the same time they put themselves outside those allied relations,” Papyan said, adding Russia has no right to sell weapons to Azerbaijan, while justifications that other countries would sell appear to be immoral with no justification.