Do Only Armenian Sides Need Peace?

• 05.17.2017, 15:24
• Anna Karapetyan
•  "Insight" Analytical Center ,  NKR,  Analytics

The Azerbaijani side has always tried to present peace as concession, in return demanding from the Armenian sides other concessions. For another time this approach was expressed by the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov in the form of "withdrawal of troops in exchange of peace" or "territories in exchange of peace" approach. 

This approach is unacceptable, moreover, it is an absurd one for several reasons:

1. Peace cannot be presented as a concession to Artsakh and Armenia, as it is equally important for all countries of the region and first of all for all people.
2. The Artsakh war and the April four-day war showed that at the battlefield Azerbaijan did not succeed in fulfilling its aims and it fails wars. Thus the threats of war by Azerbaijani to fulfill its goals are baseless.
3. Each concession should be mutual and equal. Karabakh conflict is about the right of Karabakh people to self-determine and this conflict can be solved only if this right is recognized.
4. The issues of withdrawal of troops, the territories are a part of the settlement package, while the negotiations, as it has many times been declared, is build based on "nothing is agreed, until everything is agreed" approach. Thus bringing these elements forward as preconditions for the negotiations and equalizing them with the promise of peace is not within the logic of the negotiation process and the essence of the conflict.

It can be claimed that Azerbaijan again distorts the essence of Karabakh conflict and the logic of the settlement trying to "sell peace" to the Armenian sides and the international community. This is both destructive and anti-humanitarian step and first of all against its own society.