Aliyev suddenly realized that he was the winner: Anatoly Matviychuk on Aliyev’s statement about the ‘Zangezur corridor’

Russian military expert Anatoly Matviychuk commented to Alpha News on the statement of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev regarding the passage of Azerbaijani vehicles without inspection through the so-called “Zangezur corridor”.

“I think there is something he did not say. I believe that this route on a bilateral basis between Azerbaijan and Armenia should be available to both Armenian and Azerbaijani carriers without inspection. But if such an agreement is not reached and the high contracting parties do not come to a decision, I think that an inspection is quite possible on the part of Azerbaijan and on the part of Armenia, in those territories that they consider the administrative border. Most likely, Aliyev probably overlooked something there,” Matviychuk said.

The expert justifies the assertive behavior of President Aliyev by the weak actions of the Prime Minister of Armenia.

“Aliyev considered that in the dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan is still the winner.
When the fighting began over Nagorno-Karabakh, the question was purely rhetorical: whose Karabakh was and something had to be taken away. But when the Armenian authorities headed by Pashinyan made such unprecedented concessions, such as the surrender of Shushi and something like that, I understood that Aliyev suddenly realized that he was the winner and he would now dictate his terms. So, I believe that even now he is trying to dictate such terms,” the political scientist said.

Matviychuk recommends that the Armenian leadership defend the interests of their state rather than promote the interests of European states.

“I believe that first of all we need to remember that Armenia is a sovereign state and that it has interests, and these interests are not the interests of France, Iran, and others, but the interests of the Armenian population that lives there,” Matviychuk concluded.