Russian MP: Azeri authorities’ desire to launch war in Karabakh is unserious

PanARMENIAN.Net - Director of the Institute of CIS states, member of the Russian State Duma Konstantin Zatulin said he has never actually trusted the Azerbaijani authorities’ desire to once again jeopardize its current economic boom and inflow of investments through launching large-scale hostilities against Nagorno Karabakh.

He noted that it was unlikely during Heydar Aliyev’s tenure, and, indeed, it has not happened, despite his rhetoric. “However, the failure of the Armenian-Turkish normalization that took place due to Azerbaijan’s pressure on Turkey made Heydar Aliyev’s heirs dizzy for some moment. I do not think they have decided to choose the military scenario. But they were resolute to achieve greater pressure on the Armenian side by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chair countries in 2010 to exclude discussion of Nagorno Karabakh’s recognition during negotiations,” Zatulin said during an online conference.

“The current Azerbaijani leadership, which rather differs from Heydar Aliyev by its experience, could be taken with the developments. But, eventually, everything turned out well, while the cool reaction of the U.S. and other OSCE Minsk Group participants to the attempts to blackmail the mediators has considerably contributed to it,” said Zatuling.

According to him, well-known statements of the Azerbaijani authorities that were published by WikiLeaks have also impressed the Russian authorities.

“The world superpowers are not interested in a new war around Nagorno Karabakh. In my opinion, we are returning to previous, more important and less dramatic times,” concluded Zatulin.