What does the opening of the Agdam road mean? - talk with British expert Thomas De Waal

Baku/18.09.23/Turan: In the "Difficult Question" program, Thomas De Waal, a well-known British expert on the Caucasus, commented on the latest events in Karabakh.

According to him, the new "leader" of the Karabakh Armenians, Samvel Shahramanyan, changed the rhetoric at a special session of the "parliament".

"There are no more speeches about self-determination, which of course is a reflection of the real situation on earth. At the same time, there is a readiness for dialogue with Baku," he said, stressing that meetings are not enough, and that "a process with the participation of many people is needed to discuss a variety of issues."

De Waal believes that the Armenian leadership no longer has territorial claims to Azerbaijan, as it was before. Nevertheless, in his opinion, the Armenians of Karabakh have a lot of questions for Baku.

"The first of them is the issue of security, security guarantees for Karabakh Armenians. And this is a question not only of Baku and Karabakh, but also of international players," the expert believes.

Touching upon the question of who made the decision to open the Aghdam road, De Waal said that Yerevan hardly contributed to this.

"If Yerevan contributed to the decision to open the Aghdam road, it was only to a small extent. The voice of Yerevan is now heard in Karabakh much weaker than before. If Araik Harutyunyan had a connection with Pashinyan, then Samvel Shahramanyan does not have it," he said.

According to De Waal, the new leadership is much further from Yerevan than the previous one.

"If the leaders of the Karabakh Armenians have a patron, it is most likely Moscow, not Yerevan. There are influential people there (in Khankendi – Ed.). Ruben Vardanyan is still sitting there, Vitaly Balasanyan is there, and Samvel Babayan is there. All these people are not friends, not allies of Pashinyan. These are more independent people who have ties with both Yerevan and Moscow. And most likely the decision to open the Aghdam road came from them," he is sure.-0-