“I cannot exclude that by torpedoing talks on the peace treaty Azerbaijan is preparing the ground for its attack against Armenia,” Vahagn Aleksanian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan likewise warned early this month that Azerbaijan may be planning to invade Armenia. Mirzoyan accused Baku of lacking the “political will” to sign a framework agreement sought by Yerevan.
The Azerbaijani side has repeatedly rejected an Armenian proposal to conclude such a deal and try to settle the remaining sticking points in the future. It has also made clear that Armenia must change its constitution before it can make peace with Azerbaijan.
In recent weeks, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has set further conditions for Yerevan. Last Friday, Aliyev also made fresh threats of military action against Armenia, accusing it of playing “dangerous games.”
Aleksanian said that Yerevan should “continue and further intensify” its peace efforts in these circumstances.
“We must clearly show the world that Armenia is doing everything to sign the peace treaty whereas Azerbaijan is essentially torpedoing that process and preparing the ground for an attack,” he said.
“There is no need to prove anything to the world because the so-called world community or its protagonists involved in our region already understand which party is not constructive,” countered Tigran Grigorian, a political analyst. “The question is whether those actors are ready to use some additional levers to put pressure on Azerbaijan and have the political will to do that. I’m not sure this is the case.”
“At this stage Azerbaijan doesn’t really need a war to achieve some goals because when you see that your enemy wants to secure some document at all costs, even if that document has no substance, you use that desire to make more demands and get more concessions,” added Grigorian.
Armenian opposition leaders also maintain that Aliyev has no intention to sign any agreement before clinching more far-reaching concessions from Pashinian. They say that Pashinian’s appeasement policy has only encouraged the Azerbaijani strongman to make more demands on Yerevan. They accuse the premier of not fulfilling his 2021 election campaign pledge to usher in a new “era of peace” in Armenia and the region.
“We have never said that Azerbaijan wants peace, does everything for peace … What we have said that is our goal is to establish peace,” Aleksanian said in this regard.
