For Aliyev, the arrest of these people is actually a negotiation trick, Andrey Chuprygin on arrest of Artsakh Armenians

Senior lecturer at the Russian National Research University Higher School of Economics Andrey Chuprygin commented to Alpha News on the arrest of Artsakh Armenians by the Azerbaijani authorities.

“The fact that Azerbaijan calls all those arrested terrorists is completely understandable, it’s a very convenient label; if you call someone a terrorist, you can imprison them for 15 years. What matters for the Azerbaijanis is to put an end to the whole story with unrecognized Artsakh – ‘they started a feud on our territory, that’s why they are terrorists’. This can be argued and, naturally, this needs to be argued. But this is Azerbaijan’s way of thinking, and Aliyev is going to pursue it to the end, or Aliyev is forming a negotiating position,” Chuprygin said.

Speaking about why Russia does not react, the expert said that reactions can be different.

“If Russia does not loudly protest about this, this does not mean that it does not react. I suspect that there are certain unofficial negotiations going on there,” he noted.

According to the expert, for Aliyev the arrest of these people is actually a negotiation trick.

“Aliyev understands perfectly well that the fact that they took back Nagorno-Karabakh is not the end; this is almost the middle of the beginning. Aliyev needs all its neighbors to recognize Azerbaijan’s sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh and stop being hysterical about this,” Chuprygin noted.

According to the expert, Russia is now in a very difficult position.

“On the one hand, relations with Azerbaijan are very important for Russia; they are strategically important. On the other hand, Armenia is also a natural ally of Russia. It is not so easy to immediately form the correct position on this matter in order to get the job done and, in general, not lose your position in this process. You see that Aliyev is satisfied – a meeting was supposed to take place in Granada, but Aliyev declined because Turkiye was not invited, and Turkiye was not invited because France and Germany did not allow. Karabakh was taken away, but it turned out that this is not the end, everything needs to be done in such a way that everyone calms down.

We’ll see, I don’t think Russia will remain on the sidelines. It is very important for Russia to maintain its position as a mediator and, in general, its influential forces in the Caucasus region. And therefore, it is not on the sidelines. It seems to me, Russia is in the process of forming this very position,” the expert concluded.