Political scientist Suren Sargsyan believes the international recognition of Artsakh should become the main task for the Armenian authorities.
"The possible international recognition of Artsakh is the biggest fear of Ilham Aliyev, as the war launched by him could be perceived by his own people as a greater defeat than the one suffered during the first Artsakh war," Sargsyan wrote on his Facebook page. Sargsyan went on, sayin:
1. The recognition of Artsakh as a tool of international pressure on Aliyev can force him many things – from the return of the captives to returning to the negotiations table and making serious concessions, including in the issue of Hadrut.
2. Armenia is to make the first step. Its recognition, followed by the international recognition [of Artsakh] should become a sword of Damocles hanging over Aliyev's head.
3. With the war Aliyev got the two principles of the conflict settlement out of the three. As he believes, he has restored what he called the territorial integrity, resorted to force and got even more than he could get through the threat of force.
4. For more than 30 years, the Co-Chairs have used to insist that the three principles (the two mentioned above and the people's self-determination) are equal. That is to say, in the current situation, people's right to self-determination is the one principle that has not been implemented.
5. Every one accepts and states that the Artsakh issue is not solved, as one of the sides is not satisfied (See Biden's letter to Aliyev and the recent statements of the MG CO-Chairs on the need for the final settlement of the conflict). If not today, then tomorrow Armenia may go to the realization of its scenario for the conflict settlement."
The political expert noted with regret that there has been no consistency about the Artsakh recognition in the inter-political discourse of Armenia and hopes political actors will consolidate over the issue during the pre-election period.