For Armenia, peace is a goal, and for Azerbaijan, a means to achieve its goals. “Fourth Power”

As if in the conditions of already established peace, Azerbaijan’s openly aggressive steps and rhetoric receive purely emotional evaluations in Armenia, almost in the logic of “a Turk remains a Turk”. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan acts completely without emotions, with a clear political program and calculations, which, however, our public-political field prefers not to see. Because emotional reactions like “peace has already arrived” or “the Turk remains a Turk” are more profitable from the point of view of internal political propaganda.

Why are the views of the Armenian and Azerbaijani authorities on peace so contradictory? The main reason is as follows: for Armenia, peace is a GOAL, and for Azerbaijan, it is a MEANS to achieve its goals. Moreover, Azerbaijan does not hide its goals, some of which are worth reminding.

1. Close the issue of Artsakh once and for all.

2. To have a reliable land connection (and not just a “corridor”) with Nakhichevan and Turkey, to put it simply, to take over all of Syunik, as well as to populate some areas of RA with Azerbaijanis, first of all, the eastern shores of Lake Sevan (so that it has access to water resources).

3. Take control of Armenia’s natural resources, including metal deposits, pastures, water resources, etc.

Theoretically, Azerbaijan can achieve these goals in two ways: through war or through negotiations (“a peace agreement”), but in practice, achieving all this through war will be extremely difficult and problematic. That is why they prefer to achieve all this through “peaceful negotiations”, especially when they see that it is quite realistic.

It is unclear how Armenia will react to this clear Azerbaijani plan called “peace”. At least, for now it only responds with hearts and “barbecue parties”.

Mark Nshanyan

Full article: “In the fourth power”