What else does Azerbaijan want from Armenia, and what else is Pashinyan ready to give?

The concept of the “era of peace”, with which Pashinyan went to the 2021 elections, has many weak points, the most important of which is that the region itself does not strive for the “era of peace”. And the attitude of Turkiye and Azerbaijan after the 2020 war and the ethnic cleansing in Artsakh in 2023 shows that Ankara and Baku do not strive to peacefully coexist in the region with the Armenian state.

Here are just two examples:

1. The Azerbaijani TV channel CBC has prepared a “documentary” film about the “historical heritage of Azerbaijanis” in Yerevan. In the film, the Azerbaijanis claim that the “objects of Azerbaijani cultural heritage” in Armenia are mostly destroyed, and some others that have been preserved are positioned as Persian or Turkmen.
2. Chair of the Board of the so-called “Community of Western Azerbaijan” Aziz Alekberli said yesterday that Azerbaijanis will “return” to the so-called “West Azerbaijan”. He demanded Armenia to “restore” Azerbaijani toponyms as people “return”.
   Even a number has been mentioned: 93 settlements should be renamed according to the requirements of the Azerbaijani side. Moreover, it is stated that an electronic map of “Western Azerbaijan” has already been prepared.

In light of the events that have been taking place in Armenia for several years, we can say with confidence that there will definitely be those who will urge from TV screens and from the pages of print and electronic media to accept all the conditions of Azerbaijan and even Turkiye. Don’t you believe it? Let’s give one more example from the recent past.

In May, when the first round of the marathon talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan took place in the United States, the former adviser to the first President of Armenia, Zhirayr Liparityan, made a revelation. He, who on Public Television convinced Armenian society that Karabakh was already lost and Armenia should “count on the mercy of Turkiye”, admitted that “the Americans told him in private conversations that the United States cannot give any guarantees for either Armenia or Karabakh.” At the same time, he also stated that modern Turkiye allegedly does not aim to destroy today’s Armenia. To prove his words, he said that Armenia has been developing alongside Turkiye for 30 years, and Turkiye has not done any harm to Armenia.

It is difficult to believe that Liparityan is such an airhead that he does not understand why Turkiye did not harm Armenia. Turkiye did not take this step because of Russia. In the 1990s, when the 50.000-strong Turkish army was preparing to invade Armenia, only the warning of the commander-in-chief of the CIS Armed Forces, General Shaposhnikov, stopped Turkiye. Back then, Yevgeny Shaposhnikov said that this step by Turkiye would be the beginning of the Third World War.

Everyone wants peace. It is normal to wish for peace, but one should understand the situation around us and build a foreign policy and a national security strategy accordingly. As in the 1990s, Armenia’s peace can be secured only if it builds effective allied relations with its strategic and natural partners, Russia and Iran. Only the repetition of the phrase “If you enter Karabakh/Armenia, it will lead to a third world war” can ensure peace in the region. And the document of November 9, 2020, gave the outlines of a new security system of the region, a system that would help Armenia survive.

Today, we can only state that a country left without allies can become easy prey for a number of forces in the region.