Deputy: "Moscow is behind the events of April 11"

Azerbaijan and Armenia have agreed to hold another round of peace talks in Russia, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova announced on April 12. Prior to that, it was expected that such a meeting would take place in the United States.

However, the day before (April 11), the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border escalated again. The deaths of seven soldiers on both sides were announced,  the parties blamed each other, and then followed  Zakharova's announcement of a meeting in Moscow.

At the moment, it was not possible to get a comment on Zakharova's statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan. However, the deputy of the Milli Majlis, Vahid Ahmedov, told Turan about the rejection of the Moscow talks.

The MP believes that the issue between Azerbaijan and Armenia will be resolved in Brussels sooner or later: "Moscow is behind the events of April 11." According to Ahmedov, mainly due to the fact that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and President Ilham Aliyev were supposed to meet in Washington: "That is, so that this meeting does not take place."

According to him, the latest provocation on the border is not the initiative of Pashinyan himself: "Because Pashinyan recently said that we made the biggest mistake when we did not bring to the consciousness of the population that Karabakh is the territory of Azerbaijan. It was a very serious conversation, which showed that if Pashinyan had the opportunity, he would have signed a peace agreement right away."

On April 12, Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan spoke about the Madrid Principles: "These principles contained territorial integrity and the right to self-determination. It was noted that the status of Nagorno-Karabakh should be clarified, and the mechanism of clarification should be agreed with the Azerbaijani side. Thus, by the decision of the Armenian side, the mechanism of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh had to be resolved jointly with Azerbaijan. Then the question arises: if Nagorno-Karabakh was not considered part of Azerbaijan, then why the status had to be agreed with Azerbaijan."

Pashinyan stressed that before the Madrid Principles, Karabakh seceded from the USSR, and then seceded from Azerbaijan. According to the Prime Minister, the biggest mistake for him and his team was that it was not made public when he came to power in 2018.

Deputy Ahmedov also noted in his statement that Russia and Iran do not want to conclude a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia: "Because Iran used Karabakh to transport drugs and weapons during the 30-year occupation. Russia does not want to improve the situation in order to keep these two states (Azerbaijan and Armenia) in its hands. But with the exception of France, the position of the United States and Europe is that the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan should be recognized, the delimitation of borders should be carried out."

It was not possible to get a comment on these statements at the Embassy of Russia and Iran in Azerbaijan. However, officials of both countries have repeatedly stated that they are interested in establishing peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

The head of the Institute of Political Management Azer Gasimli reminded “Radio Azadlig” that over the past year the negotiations had both a Russian and an American format: "But the fact is that Russia, being in Karabakh, directly controls the process on the spot. Therefore, it is not so concerned about the format. Even if negotiations are not conducted in any format, this is a profitable option for Russia. The format that is not suitable for Russia is some kind of negotiations proposed by the United States or the European Union."

According to the political commentator, Russia will create political tension so that there is no format of the United States and the European Union: "Both the leadership of Armenia and the leadership of Azerbaijan are still dependent on Russia. The Azerbaijani leadership does not want the format of the United States or the European Union to be instead of Russia. Since the Azerbaijani authorities have established an undemocratic regime in the country, and it is not profitable for them to weaken Russia's support here. And the Armenian leadership cannot behave as it wants, because Russia is still strong and does what it wants."

According to Gasimli, the format of the United States or Brussels should be requested by both the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides: "Otherwise, this will not happen. Russia is also playing in the process. That is, as soon as Armenia makes some Western integration, rapprochement, Russia gets closer to Azerbaijan, offers certain dividends, provokes, and disrupts the game. Or, on the contrary, when Azerbaijan disagrees somewhere, it makes statements to the Armenians that correspond to their interests."

The political scientist says that relations between Russia and Armenia have deteriorated significantly in recent weeks: "There is a possibility that the leadership of Azerbaijan, together with the leadership of Armenia, will adopt the American format. If these two accept it together, then Russia will have nothing to do. Azerbaijan, based on national interests, should find a common language with Armenia, and keep pace with it. But I do not believe that the current government will do this, because it does not want to let the collective West into this region. Their strength means Russia's weakness. And Russia's weakness is a situation that is not beneficial to Ilham Aliyev inside the country."