The alternative to Armenia-Azerbaijan border delimitation is not to have delimitation; they do not sign. The second president of Armenia, leader of the opposition “Armenia” Bloc Robert Kocharyan stated about this during his year-end press conference Monday.
“When they say, the alternative to delimitation is simply not to go to that process because you are in a very weak state. You have a thousand opportunities to substantiate: you do not have diplomatic relations, you do not have any bilateral relations, delimitation moves ahead nowhere without diplomatic relations. After all, when a person wears clothes, first he wears underwear, then some things, finally he wears a coat; that is, the opposite does not happen,” said Kocharyan.
To a reporter’s remark that not signing a border delimitation agreement means not having a specified border with Azerbaijan, and to the question of whether in that case, Azerbaijan may carry out any encroachment on the borders of Armenia, the second president responded as follows: “I do not consider it right to simplify the situation in this case because we do not say there is no border. Not going to delimitation at this moment is not to say we have no borders at all, but it bears the following consequences in it: The confirmed delimitation means that you recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, which will enable Azerbaijan to tell us and Russia once and for all that ‘You have recognized my territorial integrity,’ we will say, ‘Yes,’ ‘If you have recognized, then I put a customs point in the Lachin corridor.’ What will you say? You will say, ‘It is not envisaged by the November 9 [2020] document. Yes, I will wait for 3.5 years, when the issue of continuity of the mandate of the [Russian] peacekeeping troops [in the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) conflict zone] must be discussed, then during the ‘dry’ negotiations I will say to Russia, there is no need anymore, the issue is settled, there is no problem, the peacekeepers can go.’ After 1-2 months of negotiations, you take a step back and say, ‘On only one condition: my [military] post must be here.’ They will put up that post, which will stand quietly for a few months, will watch, as it happened in [Armenia’s] Kapan [city].
We do not even control huge areas today, the danger of delimitation is to make this scenario possible. You should always put yourself in the opponent’s shoes, you should ask what you will do to solve this problem, at the same time say what argument you have against it; there is none. These [Armenian] authorities want to do that so that after that they can say, ‘What do I have to do with it? The Karabakh issue has nothing to do with me anymore and I ‘threw’ it in the ‘pockets’ of the Russians.’ I am somewhat informed that such questions are happening now, they say, ‘Let them negotiate with the Russians. What does it have to do with us?”’
According to the second president, Karabakh was strong in the past, and Armenia was the guarantor of its security.
“Then speaking in place of Karabakh is one question, today not speaking for Karabakh is a completely different thing. It is simply not possible to manipulate the society in this way. Then, the voice of Karabakh should have been heard more, today the voice of Armenia should be heard more,” Kocharyan added.
The Syunik file is about Armenia’s autonomy, self-determination and sovereignty, so it can never be compared with the Lachin corridor.
What will possibly happen if the land corridor in southern Armenia (Syunik and Vayots Dzor) is realized by Azerbaijan in the upcoming peace negotiations with Armenia? Fill it in yourself and see the geographic consequences. The Artsakh war can then be described as child’s play.
A God’s gift to Turkey’s Pan-Turkism pursuit and the realization of the foundations of the desired ‘Turkic World’.
The “Turkish World 2040 Vision”, a strategic document for guiding future cooperation, was recently ratified in Istanbul during the 8th Turkic Council Summit (aka the Organization of Turkic States). It consists of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and Uzbekistan as member countries and Hungary and Turkmenistan as observer states (established in 2009).
Noting also that, the leader of the Turkish parliamentary NMP, recently has presented the Turkish President, with a map of the ‘Turkic World’, which includes the regions of Southern Russia: the Kuban Region, Rostov Region, Dagestan, Chechnya and the Crimea.
The geographic map further states: Eastern Siberia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, the Balkans, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, and some territories of Mongolia and Iran.
Referring also to the October comment of the Azerbaijani President, Ilham Aliev stated that the Zangezur Corridor will unite the entire Turkic world.
Noted also the following phrase is very disturbing and almost unbelievable: “Azerbaijan’s goal is to have the corridor, which the leader of our country had given consent to, but had refused to fulfil the promise later because to give the corridor would mean to destroy Armenia. I believe the negotiations are being held to manoeuvre the words ‘road’ or ‘corridor’.”
Azerbaijan’s continued militarily provocative efforts, again recently, have only two goals: 1.) the realization of the land corridor and 2.) gain a better negotiating position in the peace negotiations. Pure threat, if I don’t get my way I’ll take it by force in plain language.
Back to July 12, 2020:
According to three different independently verified sources, Armenian forces RESPONDED and shelled the Tovuz district of Azerbaijan in direct response to Azerbaijan’s hostilities “around and within” the territory of Tavush Province in northeastern Armenia.
A legitimate defensive act of warfare.
According to the same sources, Baku wanted to make the northern land corridor that Azerbaijan has with Georgia and the EU more secure and also (more importantly) test how the Armenians would react.
It turned out to be a strategic miscalculation and after 4 days of hostilities failed miserably. No staged war was fabricated and the security of the BTC and Baku-Supsa oil pipelines, as well as of the South Caucasus gas pipeline (the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum line), these failed hostilities from Baku made even more unstable in the threat assessments in the EU and Russia.
The hostilities by Baku in the Tavush province and the provoked counter-attack by Armenia towards Tovuz on the border between Azerbaijan and Armenia, far from Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), can be considered a prelude to the Artsakh War of September 27, 2020.
The July 2020 distraction, test and failure aimed to militarily initiate the (hidden and desired) plan of a land corridor across Armenia. The second distraction would be Artsakh (this was an afterthought and a nice touch), the target of the southern province of Syunik bordering Iran and Artsakh.
The military build-up, training and supplies of weapons by Turkey to Baku took off as a result because it also turned out that without Turkey Baku would not succeed.
The urgency to connect Turkey, the enclave of Nakhchivan and Azerbaijan turned out to be great, but in the end too big to swallow, because on November 10, 2020, Moscow thought it was enough and intervened.
An actually strategically failed battle, which led to a stalemate.
So again.
What will possibly happen if the land corridor in southern Armenia (Syunik and Vayots Dzor) is realized by Azerbaijan in the upcoming peace negotiations with Armenia?
Fill it in yourself and see the geographic implications for Russia, the Near East, China, the Northern and Southern Caucasus, Southeast Europe and the global balance of power, which has been out of balance since this century.
Total chaos and more local wars through a single accomplished land corridor.
The Artsakh war can then be described as child’s play.
How would Kocharyan resist Russia, which has betrayed Armenia and continues to do so?
What is Kocharyan’s plan?