Turkey to freeze anti-Armenian plans to avoid multi-front conflicts – Armenian analyst

August 21, 2015 By administrator

in an interview with Tert.am, Head of the Modus Vivendi center Ara Papyan commented on Kurds declaring Turkey’s Dersim an autonomous region and spoke of consequences.
According to him, a number of analysts, including himself, are speaking of that. That is, time of disintegration of empires is coming. Turkey has found itself “between two or three fires” and has to freeze its anti-Armenian programs for a while not to war on several battlefields at a time.
Mr Papyan, Kurdish insurgents have declared Dersim an autonomous region and set checkpoints there. What will be the impact on Armenia in terms of security and, so to say, territorial claims?
To understand the phenomena we should take a wider view of things. I think is frozen process is simmering in the Middle East, which stemmed from World War I. This is disintegration of empires. At one moment, the process was interrupted because of the Russian revolution to resume in the Balkans in the 1990s. And it should be expected in the Middle East and Russia now. I think that, if establishing good-neighborly relations with neighbors fails, relations need to be established with organized societies – religious or ethnic groups – in the states in question.

Alevis constitute 70-80 percent of the Dersim population, with a dense Alevi population in the adjacent territories. And it is a question of 12-20 million people in Turkey.
I should also note that although Alevis are considered Shiites, many of them do not profess Islam. They consider themselves followers of a different religion because of essential differences. Moreover, Alevis have shown a much better attitude to Armenians and it is no coincidence that many more Armenians were saved in the Alevi-populated regions during the Armenian Genocide. We should also remember the Dersim massacre of 1938. In contrast to the Armenian Genocide, Turkey actually recognized the massacre and Recep Erdogan gave an apology. This all, with developing sense of national identity, is a new phenomenon. Will it lead to disintegration of Turkey and formation of new states – it is too early to speak of that. However, the fact is that it is a most serious process. And Dersim is not the only region. Numerous other Kurdish regions are being ravaged by hostilities. So we are entering a period of serious changes many, including myself, have for years spoken of.

When war operations got under way along the Turkey-Syria border at the end of July, you foresaw the start of difficult times for Turkey. So is the self-proclamation of Dersim a sign that your predictions are coming true?
It is, as a matter of fact, a phase of those difficult days, with Turkey being between the devil and the deep see. On the one hand, it faces [the ethnic] minorities internally; we call them minorities conventionally, because a dense population of 12, 15 or 20 million is far from being a minority; It’s a whole commune, let alone a nation as the Alevi community needs to be treated as a creed. It’s a powerful phenomenon. The other trouble is that the Islamists have started pressuring Turkey. So Turkey is facing blows by the Alevis from the left and the Islamists from the right. Plus, the West is shifting the emphasis on cooperation to Iran, a move that will undermine Turkey’s major significance.
We, the Armenians, will yet another time, find ourselves unprepared in face of the groundbreaking periods. Obviously, though, it is very important to be prepared for such moments. It is periods like this that open up an opportunity to solve different problems, including Armenia’s land issue. And this is where the Alevis could be allies for us, as it appears to be a big problem for Turkey. It isn’t as though it lessens Turkey’s chances for intervention. Let us not forget that Turkey has sunk in the West’s estimation as a NATO member country and an Islamic state without, at the same time, finding allies in the Islamic world. On the contrary, it has gained enemies. So I repeat, Turkey is going to face hard times. As to our possible advantages, it is linked to quite a lot of objective and subjective factors.
So should Turkey temporarily freeze such anti-Armenian strategic plans as the Turkey-Azerbaijan duo, Panturkism etc?

It should, because it isn’t easy to carry on a war or conflict on different fronts. And it’s not for every country, especially Turkey.
But if we approach the problem from the standpoint of the Armenian lands while Dersim and Alevis keep striving for independence, it is too early to speak about that. For them, however, it is advantageous to have Armenia as their neighbor, as that would open their way to the sea.
And what is all that likely to bring about inside Turkey? Is a war scenario possible? Turkey is not clearly going to wait in idleness. So what is the expected action?
A war, which is practically in progress. And Turkey even uses air equipment to suppress the rebels. But experience shows that a military pressure is not likely to solve the problem … So, what is Turkey going to do? To keep using pressure, annihilating and massacring people? But its chances to do that are becoming less and less, as there are powers interested in maintaining the domestic instability. Those are the forces that wouldn’t wish, for instance, the Iranian gas to reach the European market and become a rival to the Russian gas, i.e. – Gazprom. The Iraq-Syria route is now closed to keep Turkey in isolation; the other option is the Azerbaijan-Georgia route which may close at any moment in light of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The next remaining option is the Armenia-Georgia [route]. So there are different conflict forces here.

Turkey is now full fledged war against Kurdish population Number of ‘Special Security Zones’ in Turkey now exceeds 100

August 19, 2015 By administrator

Around 250 villagers built up tents at the foot of Ağrı Mountain to protest Special Security Zones put in place there on Aug. 6. (Photo: DHA)

The number of “Special Security Zones” — a new name for the infamous Emergency Rule Regions (OHAL) of the 1990s — in Turkey’s east and southeast is now over 100, media outlets reported on Wednesday. report Zaman

According to the Habertürk daily, the security forces have declared 21 areas in the Silvan, Lice and Kulp districts of Diyarbakır province as Special Security Zones until Sept. 5, while the Ağrı and Tendürek areas were declared as such for the period Aug. 2-17.

Other areas declared Special Security Zones in east and southeast Turkey are the Şenkaya district of Erzurum province; the Nusaybin, Kızıltepe and Mazıdağı districts of Mardin province; the Yüksekova district of Hakkari province; areas between the Köprübaşı border gate and Karkamış district in Gaziantep province; areas between the Yağmuralan-Tatlıca highway, the Öncül-Arıcandere highway and the Esentepe military outpost-Ziyaret military outpost highway in Şanlıurfa province; the Ovacık, Nazımiye, Çemişgezek, Hozat and Mazgirt districts of Tunceli province; the Uludere and Cizre districts of Şırnak province; and the Pervari and Eruh districts of Siirt province.

Meanwhile, five areas in Şırnak have been declared temporary “Military Security Zones” for six months by a Cabinet decision. Law No. 2565 on Military Forbidden Zones and Security Zones provides for the establishment of two types of security zones — Military Security Zones and Special Security Zones.

After a suicide bombing in Suruç in Şanlıurfa province killed 33 activists and injured 100 more on July 20, clashes involving the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have grown in number. Two police officers were killed by PKK members on July 22 in retaliation for Turkish authorities’ perceived failure to prevent the Suruç attack. The violence and PKK-led attacks further escalated when Turkey carried out air strikes on PKK bases in neighboring Iraq. More than 45 Turkish security personnel have been killed in PKK attacks or clashes with the terrorist organization.

The OHAL period lasted for 15 years in southeast Turkey during the 1980s and 1990s, when the Turkish security forces implemented tough security measures to fight against the PKK in the region. The period was also marked by human rights violations of the Kurdish population in the area, leading to the period being considered a dark era of recent Turkish history. Thousands of individuals were abducted or fell victim to unsolved murders for political reasons.

In Iraq bastions, PKK braces for new war with Turkey

July 30, 2015 By administrator

Agence France Presse

QANDIL MOUNTAINS, Iraq: Pointing to a crater left by one of scores of Turkish airstrikes in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, a PKK rebel official said that “Turkey has declared war against us.”

For three decades, Turkey was at war with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) but two years ago, after months of secret talks with Ankara, jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan urged his people to lay down their arms and withdraw to their mountain bases in northern Iraq.

An uneasy truce since then ended Friday when Turkish fighter jets began bombing PKK positions in the Qandil area as well as some camps north of the city of Dohuk, further west.

“We were committed to the cease-fire up until the very last moment but Turkey was not,” said Zagros Hiwa, a member of the PKK political leadership, a large portrait of Ocalan hanging from the wall behind him.

“Now we will protect ourselves and follow our own strategy,” he said without elaborating.

Hiwa said at least five PKK members have been killed since then, and another four wounded. There were reports that some civilians were wounded north of Dohuk.

At one PKK base in Qandil, there was no sign of extensive destruction but some buildings were damaged, as was a graveyard for PKK fighters.

A visit to the political leadership’s main base further up the mountain was not possible due to “security reasons,” and the extent of the destruction there remained unclear.

Hiwa showed AFP huge craters caused by airstrikes but they were mostly in wooded areas and did not appear to have struck any targets.

In recent days, the PKK has been blamed for a string of attacks against Turkish government targets which Ankara says justifies its renewed military campaign. On the same day it struck the PKK in Iraq, the Turkish air force for the first time raided ISIS militants in Syria.

Critics have suggested its strikes on ISIS were merely providing cover for its onslaught against the Kurds.

Hiwa argued that by striking Kurdish fighters, NATO member Turkey had done more to help ISIS over the past week than to bolster the U.S.-led coalition’s war on the extremist group. “Turkey is using NATO and the international community’s war against ISIS to attack the PKK, and the Kurds in general, who are the main fighting force against ISIS,” he said.

Rasul Abdullah Faqi, a father of seven from Inzi, a village at the foot of the Qandil mountains, said the population lived in fear of more air raids. “The strikes hit our village in several spots and we have lost a lot of cattle. Some of our farms were damaged or burned down,” the 40-year-old said.

He pulled his donkey out of an enclosure to show a makeshift bandage he wrapped around his animal to cover a deep wound.

“There are no PKK members in my village, they’re further up, quite far from here,” Faqi said.

“The people are scared, some have left but many are staying and will stay until the bitter end,” he said.

Azerbaijan unprepared for war in either military or economic terms – Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan

July 27, 2015 By administrator

Active negotiations were, to an extent, unexpected in Armenia-Azerbaijan relations as the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs are aware this phase is important for both Armenia and Azerbaijan, political scientist Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan told reporters on Monday.

According to him, Azerbaijan is now unprepared for war.

“Nevertheless, no serious developments should be expected. A presidential meeting is the most that can be expected. To break the deadlock in the talks, the co-chairs only have to organize a meeting. And one can hardly say whether or not they will succeed. It will depend on the events on the battlefield,” Mr Melik-Shahnazaryan said.

According to him, the intensified negotiating process has overlapped the regional developments, particularly Iran’s cooperation with the Six. Russia-US regional cooperation has been restarted and Azerbaijan is sparing no efforts to keep border tensions.

“I can assure you Azerbaijan is succeeding. It launches actions when any regional developments get under way,” Mr Melik-Shahnazaryan said.

As regards a possibility of new war, the expert said that he does not see Azerbaijan is prepared for that as it is unprepared for resuming hostilities either in military or economic terms.

“Social problems are very grave in Azerbaijan, and the country is not going to receive any support even from its strategic ally, Turkey. Therefore Azerbaijan cannot have any military success, whereas the Armenian side has high chances,” Mr Melik-Shahnazaryan said.

Thus, the only thing Azerbaijan can do is to create tensions on the border thereby getting political dividends.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs’ visits should not be linked to other European officials’ visits, as Europe’s task is to map out possible developments. Armenia’s role is increasing as Iran is trying to stress Armenia’s role in the region.

So the task is to make Azerbaijan face permanent border tension thereby divesting it of this “monopoly right.”

Source: tert.am

ISIS Daech / Kurdistan: Erdogan games fooled by Ara Toranian

July 26, 2015 By administrator

Leading to so-called parallel strikes against Daech ISIS of positions in Syria and the PKK in Iraq, the Turkish authorities have once again delivered to this consummate art of manipulation that made the heyday of their history. Many media are they not in fact fell into the trap, by titrating on Turkey’s shift in strategy toward the Islamic state, each of which must now until he enjoyed the convenience of Ankara. By lifting its veto on the use of anti-Daech for the American base at Incirlik, which was still strange for this pseudo pillar of NATO, Turkish leaders clearly want to give the feeling of a changing political, less understood internationally. An impression they hope credibility by strikes against jihadist positions in Syria, highlighted with a lot of media hype. But what is it really?

After the shock that followed the terrible suicide bombing Suruc, which Erdogan has earned numerous condolence telegrams – including one of Armenia – it appeared very quickly that this massacre (32 dead) was actually at least as much the Kurdish movement in the strict sense that the Turkish state. And that it was therefore not impossible that the responsibility of Ankara, the double game towards Daech only matched his hostility to the Kurds, is implicated in the slaughter. The immediate reaction of the PKK who performed two Turkish police estimated Islamist accomplices in the attack showed at least the limits of credulity vis-à-vis Erdogan.

By authorizing the use of Incirlik base and hitting Daech, it actually has especially made a classic diversionary tactic to divert attention from its primary objective is to weaken the Kurdish movement. The opening of the US base, the coalition forces were able to go so far, no one seems to take effect at this stage of the operations that a purely symbolic significance. As for the military relevance of highly claimed air strikes against the Islamists, it leaves skeptical. According to the Kurds, they would indeed reached that target devoid of any strategic interest. This would not be the case for those anti-PKK launched on July 24 in the regions of Qandil, Xakurke, Behdinan, Zap, Gare, Haftanin, Basya, Metina and Avasin. “The bombings that have caused deaths among the civilian population as well as substantial property damage,” according to a statement of the Kurdistan National Congress.

Although he struggles to shuffle the cards, the game Erdogan appears after all in this case quite clearly. Particularly with regard to their perception of risk strengthening the Kurdish armed resistance along its borders, perceived as a threat to Turkey’s territorial integrity. It is this danger never stops wanting ward, as evidenced passivity of his soldiers who were present at the foot arms to jihadist aggression against Kobanî for months. But how weaken the Kurds, who are on the ground the only credible bulwark against Daech of barbarians, without throwing the mask and trigger the disapproval of his allies, an uproar of the civilized world? Erdogan, whose touchy nationalism feeds on narcissism, thought he had found the solution, pretending to radicalize his position at the location of Daech to actually hit better its main enemy, the Kurdish resistance. Which ultimately returns to the field to strengthen Daech …

The Turkish authorities are familiar with this type of shenanigans. YouTube was published in March 2014 a very interesting conversation between Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, the heads of the armed Yasa Guler and the intelligence official Haka Fidan, in which the three “strategists” planned to launch from Syria a false attack against the Turkey so as to justify a military intervention in return and annex part of the neighboring territory by war. The situation today, which follows the same logic, rests the question of nuisance force of a Turkish nationalism which means more play leading roles, he has just suffered an electoral setback, with including the introduction in Parliament of its own pro-Kurdish HDP, and his old rival in the race for regional leadership, Iran, made a spectacular come back on the international and local scene.

The West, and primarily the United States, will they again fooled by the maneuvers of the Turkish state, so that they form in the anti-Daech battle a kind of united front with units of Kurdish popular defense ( YPG), linked to the PKK, some as air forces, the other as ground forces? Finally, by dint of playing with Daech whose sorcerer’s apprentice Erdogan has encouraged the development so far, Turkey does not risk being contaminated in turn by the conflict which it hoped to capitalize against her Syrian neighbor blowing embers on Islamist?

Issues of interest to the highest degree of security of Armenia, and behind which looms that of Western complacency regarding this Turkish hypernationalisme which history has shown, through the extermination of the Christian minorities of the country , it was never as dangerous as when it was trying to exploit jihadism.

Sunday, July 26, 2015,
Ara © armenews.com

Azerbaijan Holds Army Drill, Risking Escalation With Armenia

July 17, 2015 By administrator

by Zulfugar Agayev,

Azerbaijan told hospitals to be ready for war and started what it called “intense” military exercises, raising the risk of an escalation in its conflict with Russian ally Armenia over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

All medical institutions and personnel received “specific instructions” from the Azeri Defense Ministry to “take the necessary measures to prepare for possible military action that can take place at any moment,” the ministry in the capital, Baku, said on its website on Thursday. The Defense Ministry said earlier in the day that its armed forces began drills involving tanks, armored infantry carriers and aircraft.

The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, frozen since a cease-fire 21 years ago, periodically threatens to spark a war on Russia’s southern periphery. Armenians took over the region and surrounding territory from Azerbaijan, which has repeatedly warned it will use force to regain it. Dozens of deaths have been reported this year in clashes on the front line.

An escalation would pose risks to the energy infrastructure around Azerbaijan. The Caspian Sea nation is the third-biggest oil producer in the former Soviet Union, and also provides the only westward route for central Asian crude that bypasses Russia.

The State Department is aware of the Azeri military measures and is watching the situation closely, spokesman John Kirby said in Washington on Thursday.

Source: bloomberg

Turkey’s Erdogan, Kurdish leader in war of words after bombing Chanting “Murderer Erdogan”

June 6, 2015 By administrator

ISTANBUL/DIYARBAKIR, Turkey | By Ayla Jean Yackley and Humeyra Pamuk

(REUTERS) Turkey’s Kurdish-rooted opposition party, which could scupper Tayyip Erdogan’s ambitions for sweeping new powers, accused the President on Saturday of a lack of respect for supporters killed in a bomb attack in an election rally and demanded he apologize.

Erdogan countered by accusing Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) leader Selahattin Demirtas of instigating violence in October, linked to events in Syria, that killed dozens.

Chanting “Murderer Erdogan” and bearing a banner declaring “peace despite everything”, hundreds marched to the scene of Friday’s attacks in the mainly Kurdish southeastern city of Diyarbakir.

Others joined a convoy of cars heading to a funeral for a 16-year-old boy. Onlookers made the victory sign and chanted “martyrs don’t die” and “AKP you will pay for this”.

HDP deputy Idris Baluken told Reuters his party had told the government it believed anti-HDP rhetoric from Erdogan and the AK Party had paved the way for the attacks.

Two explosions sent ball bearings and nails tearing into a crowd of tens of thousands at Friday, killing two people and injuring over 200.

Demirtas said Erdogan went ahead with his own rally after news of the bombing broke without referring to it or to the people affected.

Erdogan later offered his condolences on what he termed a “provocation” designed to undermine Sunday’s election. He did not spell out who he believed to be the provocateur.

“He needs to apologize to them, express his sadness to them,” Demirtas told a rally on the Asian side of Istanbul.

“He should go to Diyarbakir. Is he not the president of 77 million people? He ought to leave flowers where people were killed.”

Erdogan, the most popular politician in Turkey but accused by opponents of authoritarian tendencies, seeks a large majority for the ruling AK Party on Sunday to furnish him with the powerful presidency he believes Turkey must have. However, if the HDP clears a 10 percent hurdle to enter parliament, that could rob AK of dozens of seats and thwart his ambitions.

“ANSWER AT THE BALLOT BOX”

Polls suggest such a result is within the HDP’s grasp, drawing as the party now is on non-Kurdish center-left and secularist sympathizers as Erdogan’s religious tone has become more pronounced.

At a rally in eastern Turkey, Erdogan said it was Demirtas who should apologize, accusing him of instigating violence that broke out when Kurds in the town of Kobani, just across the Syrian border, came under siege from Islamic State militants.

Demirtas accused pro-government newspapers of giving scant coverage of Friday’s attacks. He held up their front pages as he spoke to thousands from atop a campaign bus in Istanbul.

“I know we are angry, but we will not act in anger. We will act in good conscience. We will be smart and we will give our answer at the ballot box and stand up for our country,” he said.

Demirtas said his party has been the target of 140 violent attacks during the campaign, including a double bombing in southern Turkish cities last month which wounded six.

He says the HDP will continue to promote peace talks between Kurdish rebels and the government whatever the election outcome.

Erdogan has accused the HDP of being a front for the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which took up arms in 1984 in an insurgency that has killed 40,000 people.

Jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan and Ankara launched peace talks more than two years ago.

(Additional reporting by Seyhmus Cakan in Diyarbakir; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by David Dolan, Ralph Boulton)

EU mission judges jail 11 ex-Kosovo Turkish Albanian guerrillas for war crimes

May 27, 2015 By administrator

EU judges in Kosovo sentenced 11 former Kosovo Albanian guerrillas to prison terms on Wednesday for war crimes committed during Kosovo’s 1998-99 uprising. Judges from the EU police and justice mission said atrocities were committed against Kosovar civilians held in a camp run by the then-Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which fought against Serbian forces. The charges in the two trials also related to the killing in 1998 of a Serbian police officer and a Kosovo Albanian civilian. Two of those convicted were close to ex-Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, Reuters said.

Armenia Warns Azerbaijan over Artsakh Escalation

March 3, 2015 By administrator

Tanks perform military exercises in Artsakh

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)—Armenia warned Azerbaijan of “severe consequences” on Monday after two Armenian soldiers were killed in Nagorno-Karabakh in what appears to be a renewed upsurge in fighting in the conflict zone.

The Artsakh Defense Army said that the servicemen, Artak Aghekian and Hayk Baroyan, were shot dead on Saturday in an Azerbaijani armed incursion in northeastern Karabakh. It reported no other details of the incident.

According to the Yerkir.am, a car carrying Aghekian, Baroyan and three other soldiers was ambushed by Azerbaijani special forces on “the line of contact” around the disputed territory. The news website said Aghekian had the military rank of lieutenant-colonel.

The spokesman for the Armenian Defense Ministry, Artsrun Hovannisian, said that the Artsakh Defense Army afterwards took “punitive” measures that left at least three Azerbaijani soldiers dead. Hovannisian identified one of them as Mehdi Mirzayev.

While alleging Armenian ceasefire violations, the Azerbaijani military has reported no combat casualties in recent days. It said on Monday one of its soldiers, Vijay Parvanayev, has died of “acute heart and lung failure” at his unit stationed in the western Azerbaijani city of Gyanja.

An independent Azerbaijani TV station Meydan reported another soldier death later in the day. Citing an unnamed Azerbaijani military source, it said that Razi Huseynov was shot and killed, allegedly by a fellow conscript, in the Gazakh district bordering Armenia’s northern Tavush province. The Defense Ministry in Baku did not immediately confirm that report.

The military authorities in Yerevan and Stepanakert claim that the Azerbaijani side has been grossly underreporting its combat casualties to avoid a domestic backlash against what they call a deliberate escalation of fighting along “the line of contact” and the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

According to Hovannisian, official Yerevan has told international mediators that Baku will be responsible for possible “severe consequences” of the latest escalation. “The Azerbaijani side has again resorted to provocations,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).

Truce violations in the conflict zone, blamed by the warring sides on each other, rose sharply in January, leading Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian to threaten “asymmetric” retaliatory strikes against Azerbaijani military targets. The U.S., Russian and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group seemed to hold Baku primarily responsible for that upsurge in a joint statement issued later in January.

The mediators urged the conflicting parties to “strictly adhere to the ceasefire” after visiting Baku, Stepanakert and Yerevan from February 16-19. A February 20 statement by them said Sarkisian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev “agreed to consider proposals from the Co-Chairs that could strengthen the ceasefire.” It did not elaborate.

Tensions on the frontlines reportedly eased in the following days only to reignite on February 28.

War or peace? Azerbaijani president’s priority is boast and deception

December 8, 2014 By administrator

By Armida Barseghyan

War or peace? This eternal question is the present-day concern of Ilham Aliyev, President of the neighboring country Azerbaijan, who is faced with a dilemma between peace talks within the OSCE Minsk Group and his own bellicose statements.

Outside Azerbaijan, Aliyev goes on stating his readiness for a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, whereas inside his country he keeps on surprising the entire world by stating his intention to conquer “historical Azerbaijani lands” – from Karabakh to the “Erivan Khanate.”

“The equipment, arms and ammunition we are purchasing from abroad meet the most modern standards. The cutting-edge air defense units have been purchased. Our army has the most powerful artillery. The precision and extremely destructive missile weaponry, transport helicopters and gunships, combat aircraft and armored vehicles, tanks – all that is the Azerbaijani army’s potential. At present, Azerbaijan’s army is capable of destroying any target in Nagorno-Karabakh. Both we and the Azerbaijani people know it, and the enemy must know it as well,” Aliyev says.

Sabre-rattling is bad form, especially on the part of a president when he opens his mouth. However, Aliyev is hardly watching his mouth in his attempts to divert the Azerbaijani society’s attention from the domestic political problems. His priority is boasting, deceiving, intimidating.

However, he fails to remember two important facts: first, his permanent militant rhetoric is keeping the Armenian army on full alert, the opposite to fear; secondly, this rhetoric makes statesman and politician Ilham Aliyev a marked man. No diplomat would seriously take this double-dealing or believe Aliyev’s claims about his readiness to sign a peace agreement with Armenians – “fascists, enemies, a military junta.”

Rhetoric is a wonderful thing. Neighboring Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili makes the following statements on his country’s conflicts:

“I would like to once again address our Abkhaz and Ossetian brothers. We are children of one land. We are going though one pain and we must move forward to the future together.”

According to him, Georgia’s desire is restoring confidence in relations with Abkhazians and Ossetians after “all of us have carried the heavy burden of the past” and “committed gross blunders.” Official Azerbaijan’s rhetoric, as compared to Georgia’s, sounds barbaric indeed. And it is amid the Armenian president’s repeated statements that “the Azerbaijani people is not the Armenian people’s enemy.” In Azerbaijan, however, threats, statements on war and annihilation of Armenians feature each official speech.

And, abstracting from your being an Armenian, looking at the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict from an outsider’s viewpoint and listening to Aliyev’s rhetoric, one would easily understand the Karabakh Armenians, who are unwilling to have anything in common with Azerbaijan. No arguments are needed. They are all in the Azerbaijani president’s official speeches. He never misses a chance to say to Armenians, “I will kill you!”

And when this militant rhetoric is accompanied by Azerbaijan heroizing Ramil Safarov, refusing to withdraw snipers from the Line of Contact and firing on the crash site of the Armenian helicopter, shot down by Azerbaijanis, to prevent access to the crew members’ bodies, you come to realize that any talks about peace with a person like Aliyev are out of the question.

As the saying is “they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.” Neighboring Azerbaijan’s president is now giving sword stokes on the Karabakh peace process – stroke after stroke. And the higher is his passion the greater is his awareness of the reality, which is sometimes as sharp as a sword and has boomerang effect.