Azernews.Az

By Ulvi Narimanli | AzerNEWS

The relations between Baku and Moscow are witnessing one of the most tense periods in the last 30 years due to the arrogance of the Kremlin.

Consumed by the belief of being a superpower and an extraordinary state in the world, Russia does not intend to admit its responsibility for shooting down the Azerbaijani plane en route from Baku to Grozny on December 25, 2024. On the contrary, it has started an old scenario that is well-known from the events in Georgia in 2008 and more recently in Ukraine.

Like in both events, some lesser-known Russian media outlets (not mainstream media outlets yet) and pundits started to threaten Azerbaijan following the news that Baku was going to bring the issue to international arbitration. Practice suggests that if Azerbaijan does not give up its righteous claims (which nobody expects it to), the Russian mainstream media will jump into the fray and start discussing whether Azerbaijan has a statehood history or not; how Bolsheviks granted a “state” to Azerbaijanis who are ungrateful to her majesty Matushka Rossiya; and all that. It is their old tactic to cow all the former Soviet republics. To tell the truth, we are fed up with such rhetoric from the Russian media.

Even one of the lesser-known media outlets has started threatening Azerbaijan by saying that they do not see what is happening in Ukraine. The so-called pundit from the media outlet suggested that Russia might repeat what it has done in Ukraine in Azerbaijan.

Being well aware of Russian tactics, we, Azerbaijanis, expect more threats in the coming days. However, does it intimidate us? Of course, it does not. Neither Ukraine nor Georgia can be a warning for us. Because both Georgia and Ukraine follow in our footsteps, not the other way around. Thirty years ago, during its weakest and most difficult times, Azerbaijan expelled Russia from its territory without yielding to any threat. At that time, unlike Ukraine which inherited over 1800 nuclear warheads, intercontinental missiles, strategic bombardment aircraft, and other weapons from the USSR, Azerbaijan did not get anything but the Garabagh conflict. However, Azerbaijan did not walk back. As a result, Russia lost the biggest country in the region and eventually, it lost the South Caucasus.

Unfortunately, at that time, Ukraine, which boasted one of the strongest countries in the world in terms of military, caved into the pressures from Russia and the West handed all strategic weapons, including nuclear warheads, to Russia, on the ground that Russia would not attack it. But it did not work and Russia attacked.

That is why, the so-called pundits threatening us should stop blowing smoke into our faces. First, we came across these problems. Second, in both cases, it became clear that Russia was not invincible. Especially, in the Ukrainian war, Russia’s losses are more than its gains. It lost in Syria, its border with NOTA doubled, inflation hiked, and so on. But Kyev could not be invaded in three days.

So, steering the issue ever closer to the rocks is not favorable for either Russia or Azerbaijan. Of course, Russia is much stronger than Azerbaijan, but that does not mean it has nothing to lose. On the contrary, every conflict hollows out Russia, making it weaker and weaker. It is time for Russia to contemplate and start good relations with its neighbors. For having good relations, Russia needs to accept that its neighbors are independent countries, not its vassals.