Ilham Aliyev, at the Armenian Shushi Global Media Forum, decided to give “advice” to Ukraine, saying that the Ukrainian people should never put up with the occupation. That means he called for continued war against Russia and publicly encouraged further military action.
If Aliyev calls the change of the geopolitical “master” and the renunciation of his own historical memory freedom and not coming to terms with the occupation, then either he has learned the stolen and rewritten Azerbaijani “history” from others, or he has not studied the history of the South Caucasus and Eastern Europe at all.
I told the Russian MPs on different occasions that your unjustified trusting relations with Azerbaijan will work against you. Israeli officials have been told the same thing many times. Today, Azerbaijan is already encouraging the state of Israel to recognize the Armenian Genocide.
Aliyev also complained about the USSR (where his father was deputy prime minister), saying that Azerbaijan had the status of a colony and all its oil resources were being exploited. On the other hand, the existence of today’s Azerbaijan, as an oil and gas exporting country, was based on the huge investments of the USSR. It was the USSR that gave the Armenian Artsakh and Nakhichevan to Azerbaijan without justification. And Aliyev today complains about the USSR and longs for freedom from the Russians.
Let’s not forget that at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Baku’s oil industry was developing thanks to the Russian and Armenian capital and the unified market. Thanks to this, Baku turned into an industrial center, and oil became an important part of the economy.
If we go beyond the scope of slogans, the general picture of the post-Soviet area is worrying. Mutual understanding has reached a minimum, and there is no question of unity.
After the collapse of the USSR, both Azerbaijan and Armenia were friendly countries of Russia, especially Armenia with its pronounced alliance attitude.
The Artsakh war, the interconnectedness of the economy, security issues and the negotiation process of a peaceful settlement pushed Armenia to have even closer relations with the Russian Federation.
In response, Moscow tried to “not offend anyone” and did not support any of the parties in the Artsakh conflict until the end. The result is obvious. Artsakh was surrendered to Azerbaijan, the Armenian society feels abandoned, Azerbaijan talks to Russia with a hard edge and a condescending tone, a war of encirclement and weakening is waged against Iran, Turkey invades the South Caucasus, striving towards Central Asia…
As a result, instead of two allies in the region, Moscow today has two dissatisfied “partners”. In return for congratulating Azerbaijan on the Artsakh issue, Russia had to withdraw its peacekeeping forces, and now it is in danger of being pushed out of the Caucasus, in which Azerbaijan will play a major role. Iran won a war that is not yet clear how it will end. Today, Israel also feels “stalked” by Azerbaijan. The EU will also be in such a state tomorrow.
In a short time, life showed that Armenian Artsakh was beneficial to everyone, except Turkey and Azerbaijan.
As for Europe, if it seems to them that by encouraging the process of depopulating Artsakh and handing it over to Azerbaijan, they will get something tangible from the Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem, then it will be a combination of three fingers. The part of Aliyev’s speech in Shushi was also clearly visible when he spoke about his relations with the Council of Europe.
Today, Aliyev allows himself to publicly advise Ukraine and talk about the “occupation” while taking advantage of Russian resources and current economic ties. This is not an isolated episode, but a symptom. In Russia, they continue to repeat the mantra about “fraternal peoples” and at the same time wonder why these “brothers” so easily go over to the side of their opponents.
The question is also who and when will Moscow finally admit that the problem is not only with “unthankful allies”, but also with those who have built relationships for years, ignoring and turning a blind eye to the current political realities.
Former RA Deputy Defense Minister Artak Zakaryan
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