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Nothing has changed but the Azerbaijani president’s attempts to deliver the true aspirations of the country’s political elite under the veil of peacefulness, political scientist Tigran Abrahamyan told Panorama.am, when asked to comment on the recent statement by the Azerbaijani president and whether his position attains elements of retreat.

To note, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev came up with a statement related to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict resolution during a visit to the settlements near the Line of Contact between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan, announcing Azerbaijan has no territorial claims to the Republic of Armenia  as well as “no intention to return Yerevan, Meghri and Goris through military means”, expressing hope the time nonetheless will come for Azerbaijanis to return to what he described as “their historical territories”.

According to the political scientist, Azerbaijani president indirectly offers that the concept of International Law has become dysfunctional, and the strength appears to have been the primary determining factor in the real world.

To Abrahamyan, Aliyev’s formulation overtly suggests that the International Law and specifically, the legal documents of the settlement process are just scrap of paper, revealing his inclination for a settlement scenario through exclusively military means.

“This shows that Azerbaijan will resort to military means as a preferable option for the conflict resolution, whenever it sees a change of the power balance in the region or an advantage in certain factors,” Abrahamyan said, adding: “Secondly, we should note that Azerbaijani president’s whole speech is built around the territorial claims to the Republic of Armenia that exposes between the lines an actual desire for a military aggression against Artsakh”.

The political scientist said nothing has changed about Azerbaijani true objectives since April, but only the framing of the public statements aimed at reaching those objectives.