Armenia celebrates diplomatic victory

PanARMENIAN.Net - Deputy Director of Caucasus Institute, political analyst Sergey Minasyan said that the September 4 incident at the line of contact between Karabakh and Azerbaijani armed forces was Azerbaijan’s attempt to take vengeance for the August 31 losses. “However, the incident offered the Armenian side a possibility to response for the June 18 Azerbaijani attack,” Minasyan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

Expert at the Armenian Center for Political and International Studies Ruben Mehrabyan stated that the party responsible for ceasefire regime violation will never acknowledge it. “Azerbaijan’s diversions prove increasingly unsuccessful,” the expert said told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

Azerbaijan’s recent diversions resemble convulsions, Armenian Deputy Defense Minister Ara Nazaryan said. “Armenian servicemen are always on alert and can repulse subversive at any moment. Nothing new is taking place at the border. Azerbaijan just intensified aggressive actions,” he said.

Member of the Republican Party of Armenia Rafik Petrosyan said that Azerbaijan’s resolution on Karabakh submitted to the UN General Assembly is a ridiculous document. “With this move, Azerbaijan demonstrated complete despair. Ilham Aliyev behaves stupidly,” he said.

Possible adoption of the resolution on Karabakh in the UN General Assembly will not have impact on the negotiation process, according to another RPA member Gagik Minasyan. “It will allow Azerbaijan to gain some political dividends merely,” he said during a joint news conference with Ramkavar Azatakan party head Harutyun Arakelyan, who for his part noted that the Karabakh conflict will be resolved during OSCE summit in December.

On September 9, Azerbaijan withdrew its proposed draft resolution A/64/L.57 from the UN General Assembly agenda, requesting to move the item to the agenda of the 65th Session of the GA.

Secretary of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) parliamentary group Eduard Sharmazanov said that thanks to the constructive position of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries and pressure of the Armenian diplomacy, Azerbaijan has withdrawn its resolution on Karabakh from the agenda of the UN General Assembly. “Azerbaijani diplomacy has come to grief,” Sharmazanov told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. “The co-chairing countries, which used to refrain from publicly condemning Azerbaijan, now clearly indicated that they are fed up with Baku’s ultimatums,” he said.

Azerbaijan’s withdrawal of the resolution from the UN General Assembly agenda can be viewed in the context of regional relations, military psychologist David Jamalyan said. “Signing the recent military agreement with Armenia, Russia confirmed its intention to maintain the regional balance. Superpowers do believe that better a bad peace than a good quarrel,” he said during a joint news conference with historian Edgar Hovhannisyan. “Even of adopted the resolution would represent no danger,” he said. “It was Azerbaijan’s regular attempt to introduce the term “occupied territories” into the international political vocabulary. Armenia, in turn, should give the right description of the situation in Karabakh conflict zone.” Hovhannisyan noted, for his part, that the superpowers’ reaction to Azerbaijan’s resolution on Karabakh had a cold shower effect on Baku. “The OSCE Minsk Group is not interested in bringing the Karabakh conflict beyond the existing format,” he said.

Meanwhile, former Foreign Minister of Armenia Alexander Arzumanyan said said Azerbaijan did not withdraw its resolution but just postponed it till the next session of the UN General Assembly. “Azerbaijan has removed this resolution from the agenda, as its demand for a fact-finding group has been satisfied,” he said. “This resolution will be the sword of Damocles hanging over Armenia,” he said. Arzumanyan also noted that the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs failed to give adequate assessment to the Azerbaijani diversions. As to internal political situation in Armenia, Arzumanyan agreed that the opposition’s maximalist attitude can’t ensure success.

Another topic of discussions was the fact that the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs arrived in Nagorno Karabakh via Azerbaijan.

There’s nothing extraordinary about OSCE co-chairs arrival in Karabakh from Baku, according to the Caucasus Institute Director, political expert Alexander Iskandaryan. “OSCE MG crossed the line of contact just as it did in past, when Vladimir Kazimirov was a part of the Group,” the expert reminded. “Armenian and Azeri Ambassadors to Russia also traveled from Karabakh to Baku,” Iskandaryan told PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. “We arrived in NKR from Baku, having crossed the line of contact for the first time over the past 9 years,” Bernard Fassier told a news conference in Stepanakert after the meeting with NKR President Bako Sahakyan. As OSCE MG French co-chair noted, crossing the line of contact is an event in itself.