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Elnur Enveroglu

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At a moment when the Garabagh knot in the South Caucasus is about to be opened, Armenia tries to use the time in its own favor by making senseless hesitations and maneuvers. All doors are closed for official Yerevan. Some issues that have been resolved logically, but need to be signed on paper, are waiting for their turn. There is no topic left to discuss in Brussels, Washington, or Moscow.

The Armenian leadership said that it will sign a peace agreement by the end of this year. How sincere this statement is will depend on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's more decisive decisions. Because Yerevan already understands that the future of the Armenian people depends on the normalization of relations with official Baku.

Another issue is the approach of the Armenian leadership to the territories, which indicates that it is moving towards progress from a social and economic perspective. For example, in his address to the European Parliament last week, Nikol Pashinyan said that peace and security in the region, as well as the expansion of economic and cultural relations, depend on the principle of open borders. Although these expressions sound pleasant to the ear, they do not meet some requirements. Especially, when looking at the problem from a more objective point of view, the formula proposed by Prime Minister Pashinyan does not justify itself. One may ask why:

The first is that the separatist junta regime established its headquarters in Armenia and keeps carrying on separatist ideas from a distance, considering Garabagh as a target of their malicious plans. Armenia should know that if it recognizes the territory of Azerbaijan within a distance of 86.6 thousand square kilometers, then the traditional continuation of separatism in its country shows it as a hypocritical and unreliable neighboring country in the process of peace talks.

The second issue is that Armenia still has tight relations with the Western forces that finance anti-Azerbaijani propaganda. It is known that in recent days, many biased opinions against Azerbaijan have been voiced from the West, especially from the US Congress and the European Union Parliament. There is no doubt that it was prepared by the Armenian lobby, which has deep roots in the West. However, the fact that Yerevan agrees with them overshadows Pashinyan's peace proposals.

The third issue is that official Yerevan is thinking more about expanding its military potential, while, in fact, it should carry out deep economic reforms, which reveals Armenia's dubious position. If Armenia talks about joint activities in the region based on the principle of open borders, then why should Yerevan not provide financial support to Azerbaijan in the construction of communication lines related to the region?

However, Armenia can develop its political relations with both India and France in more efficient and progressive directions.

Although political groups sometimes make baseless and distorted comments about Azerbaijan's geopolitical position, the reality is that Azerbaijan is not against the participation of foreign investors with some progressive thoughts in mind in the region. On the contrary, Azerbaijan is a country that promotes the 3+3 format as an initiative to unite both the regional states and the states outside of it. Azerbaijan does not intend to segregate the South Caucasus from the progressive-thinking political circle of the West. Today, the work done in Garabagh is a clear display of an example for many companies of the world with great financial opportunities. But unfortunately, today some European political entities are more inclined to incite conflict in the region instead of appreciating these opportunities.

Thus, the economic realities in the South Caucasus once again show that there is no way for Armenia to hesitate in taking a step in the right direction. The Western forces he trusted have already openly expressed their position against peace. On the basis of Nikol Pashinyan's principles of peace and security in the region and open borders, the cooperation of the neighboring states depends only on the decisive step of Armenia.

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Elnur Enveroglu is AzerNews’ Deputy Editor-in-Chief, follow him on @ElnurMammadli1

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