Aliyev Aliyev of Azerbaijan recently made a fiercely worded speech at an event in which he criticized the Armenian authorities for trying to find new support and tried to put pressure on Azerbaijan with it.
"Armenia tried to find new masters and pinned its hopes on them, but it was useless," Aliyev said. It should be clear to them that the only way out for Armenia is to accept all our conditions and renounce its claims to the territories of Azerbaijan. ”
The dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan is mainly concentrated in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. In 2020, when war broke out between the two sides over the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, Armenia was not supported by a strong Turkey, but was suppressed by Azerbaijan and lost control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Taking advantage of the conflict in Ukraine, Azerbaijan once again took the initiative to attack Armenia and achieved a military victory.
In September last year, Azerbaijan launched a military operation called "Anti-Terrorist Operation", which managed to take control of the entire Nagorno-Karabakh region in less than 24 hours. And Armenia, which has always claimed the Nagorno-Karabakh region as its own territory, has not fired a single shot and watched Azerbaijan take the Nagorno-Karabakh region into its pocket.
Russia is simply standing by and watching the situation. Although they have some responsibility in this matter, the main reason is that they cannot distract more energy from other matters. In the second half of last year, the conflict in Ukraine was so intense that it was difficult for Russia to cope with it itself, let alone meddle in the affairs of the Caucasus.
Such an attitude of Russia disappointed Armenia, lost trust in Russia's protection, and at the same time openly courted the West.
In October last year, Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan shifted the blame to Russia, accusing Russia, as the leader of the CSTO, of failing to guarantee Armenia's security. In fact, he is accusing Russia of not giving enough support to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.
Since then, Armenia has gradually shifted its diplomatic focus to the West. In October last year, Pashinyan refused to attend a meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Commonwealth of Independent States in Kyrgyzstan, and then flew directly to Spain to attend a meeting of European co-leaders. In November, he refused to attend the CSTO summit in Minsk, completely dismissing Russia. Recently, Pashinyan even announced the suspension of his participation in the CSTO, saying that the CSTO did not work. This series of changes in attitude is undoubtedly a public expression of dissatisfaction with Russia.
At the same time, Armenia has strengthened cooperation with the West in the field of security. On February 23 of this year, France and Armenia announced the signing of a cooperation document under which France will provide Armenia with ** rifles and assist in the training of its officers.
Considering the recent diplomatic developments in Armenia, Aliyev's accusations of its search for a "new master" are not surprising. The "new masters" of Armenia are obvious, and the "old ones" speak for themselves. Aliyev's statement that "the only way out for Armenia is to accept all Azerbaijani conditions" is to tell Armenia that it is useless to find anyone to support them, and that the dispute must be resolved in accordance with Azerbaijan's conditions.
As it stands, despite the victory of Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, they do not intend to stop there, but turn their attention to the Zangezur corridor, hoping to open this land passage by force and connect the mainland with the Nakhichevan enclave. For their part, Armenia has already lost the Nagorno-Karabakh region, and if the Zangezur corridor is lost again, its territorial integrity will be seriously threatened.
Therefore, Aliyev issued a stern warning to Armenia in the hope that the dispute between the two countries can be resolved once and for all. On the basis of the control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region that has been obtained, Azerbaijan wants to open up the Zangezur corridor.
More importantly, there is now a growing possibility of another large-scale conflict between the two sides. Clashes between the two countries in the border area in the middle of this month left two people dead and one injured. Both sides accuse the other of being "forced" to defend themselves.
If the situation escalates again, Armenia's "new backer" will probably choose to wait and see, like Russia.
In general, Armenia is now gradually alienating itself from Russia and taking the initiative to make overtures to the West, but this does not fundamentally change their predicament, but may further push Russia to the opposite side and add more trouble to itself.