Armenian ambassador-designate to the EU Tigran Balayan says his country expects Azerbaijan to invade “within weeks.”

Azerbaijan will follow up the attack of Nagorno-Karabakh with an attack on Armenia itself, Balayan says.

In an interview with Brussels Signal, Balayan said that Azerbaijani promises to respect international law are hollow.

“We are now under imminent threat of invasion into Armenia”, he said.

The central problem was that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has not yet met any concrete repercussions for his expansionist plans.

There would be no stopping Azerbaijan if it “is not confronted with very practical steps taken by the so-called collective West”.

On September 19, Azerbaijan launched a military offensive against Nagorno-Karabakh, which left hundreds of Armenians killed and thousands of others displaced. On September 20, the authorities of Nagorno-Karabakh agreed to a ceasefire on Azerbaijan’s terms, including the dissolution of the Defense Army. On September 18, President of the Republic of Artsakh Samvel Shahramanyan signed a decree, according to which the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) will cease to exist by January 1, 2024. As of 1 October, 100,625 displaced residents have already fled Nagorno-Karabakh and reached Armenia.

Balayan says that Aliyev intends to come for more. Specifically an extraterritorial corridor that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhchivan enclave.

While the Azerbaijani Ambassador told Brussels Signal that his country has no designs on Armenia’s internationally-recognised territory, Balayan believes this was bluff.

He cited President Aliyev’s previous statements that Azerbaijan would “chase the Armenians like dogs”. Aliyev is also reported by Reuters to have claimed the Zangezur was historical Azerbaijani land in a recent meeting with Turkey’s President Erdoğan.

Balayan said there were very “practical” measures the EU could take to confront Azerbaijan and President Aliyev.

He suggested the EU must give Aliyev a deadline to withdraw his army from the Armenian border region, and to suspend Azerbaijan’s visa-free travel agreement with the EU if he failed to comply. He also said that “individual sanctions can send a clear message.”

This follows a a similar resolution made by the European Parliament on October 5. MEPs called on the EU to suspend its current energy and visa agreements with the EU.