GlobalWide News
The Financial Times: After victory in Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan, instead of announcing a new era of peace, has made Armenia fear that the conflict is not over. No meaningful steps have been taken to reconcile the two states. Residents of southern Armenia fear they could be next if Baku wants to build a land corridor to Nakhichevan, which is separated from mainstream Azerbaijan. But Azerbaijani presidential aide Hikmet Hajiyev denies such plans. According to him, with the return of Karabakh “Azerbaijan has become full-fledged. It is complete and whole.”
▪️ “We want to take them at their word, but then there’s the ‘but’,” the western diplomat said. If there are no further military aims, he asked, “why are we having such difficulties getting the leaders together? . . . If you’re saying you’re committed to peace, please sign on the dotted line.”
▪️ Two other officials said that up until the start of the one-day war they had been promised that there would be no fighting in Karabakh. And they were very disappointed by the deception.
▪️ Armenians are watching anxiously to see what Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev might do next. They were previously alarmed when he referred to southern Armenia as “western Azerbaijan” and set up a society dedicated to defending the rights of Azerbaijanis whose roots are from the region. According to Hajiyev, Aliyev was “misunderstood.” He said the leader was allegedly only talking about the right of Azerbaijanis to visit their birthplace as tourists.
The entire article can be read at the link https://www.ft.com/content/0ccdf385-dab8-42f2-ba4a-b58c8cbbebe3
