War with Azerbaijan not over, says former Armenian FM
After the 2020 war, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Armenia and later other actors interested in developments in the South Caucasus started talks about a sustainable and long-lasting peace. However, the subsequent developments have indicated that peace has different meanings for Yerevan, Baku and Ankara, former Foreign Minister Ara Ayvazyan says.
His comments came at a roundtable discussion on the current challenges facing Armenia hosted by the All-Armenian Council of Diplomats NGO in Yerevan on Monday.
The former minister stated the challenges facing Armenia mostly stem from external factors, putting diplomacy at the forefront for preserving Armenian statehood.
Ayvazyan stressed the need to carefully analyze the foreign and security policies pursued jointly by Azerbaijan and Turkey to discuss possible scenarios in the future.
"Despite the temporary ceasefire, the war is not over," the former minister said, pointing to Azerbaijan’s policy of military, territorial and economic expansion against Armenia which aims to make the country fully dependent on Azerbaijan and Turkey in key sectors of economy.
According to the diplomat, Armenia is persistently running a policy of appeasement in the increasingly worsening situation.
"Armenia seeks to reverse the power imbalance in the region through a policy of unilateral concessions. In fact, the situation is quite similar to that of Czechoslovakia in 1938, when they boasted that international peace could be upheld through some concessions to Hitler," he said, recalling that it all ended in a great tragedy.
Ayvazyan underscored that Armenia’s policy of unilateral concessions aimed at preserving the status quo and Azerbaijan’s policy of expansionism to permanently change the status quo are incompatible.
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