Analyst: Armenia and Artsakh have all the mechanisms for the  implementation of a strategy capable of getting Azerbaijan cornered

ArmInfo.Today, Armenia and Artsakh have all the mechanisms for implementing a strategy capable of getting Azerbaijan cornered. Director of the Armenian Center for  Strategic and National Studies Manvel Sargsyan expressed this opinion to ArmInfo.

"Throughout the settlement process, our main problem was the lack of  not only rational thinking, but even rational ideas about the causes,  the essence and, accordingly, the prospects for the Karabakh  conflict. In the meantime, how can we get rid of these misconceptions  and approaches, only soberly assessing the situation.  Azerbaijan  does not want to make peace with us today and does not want tomorrow.  He will do it only forcedly, as happened in 1994. The difference is  that, if then it became possible by military means, today it is can  be achieved by diplomatic, political, "- he stressed.

According to the analyst, the basis of this path is the theses  already expressed by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan: the  responsibility of the parties for peace and the limited powers of  Armenia in determining the final fate of the Artsakh people. These  theses, according to Sargsyan, should be transformed into a full-  fledged, powerful strategy that is completely capable of finally  driving Baku into a corner.

In his opinion, this strategy should be based on a qualitatively new  Armenian diplomacy based on new resources. These resources are, and  they are powerful enough. Sargsyan is convinced that Baku is well  aware of the situation better than in Yerevan, as evidenced by the  discussion led by Ilham Aliyev. "Most recently, Aliyev stated quite  specifically that he would not allow the implementation of the Vienna  agreements and changes in the negotiation format," the analyst  recalled.

The participation of Baku in the negotiations, according to the  analyst, is due to the obligations to resolve the Karabakh conflict  exclusively by peaceful means. It was on these conditions that  Azerbaijan was recognized as a state, joined various international  organizations. And the fact that today they have begun to actively  recall these commitments, according to Sargsyan, deprives Azerbaijan  of not only the possibilities to initiate a new large-scale  aggression, but also to continue, in fact, "military diplomacy."

"In such conditions, we have every opportunity to deprive Azerbaijan  of any rights to Artsakh, and only through political means. Those  rights that he de jure holds for 30 years. Wars are always aimed at  solving problems. And in Baku they should clearly see that the war  does not only solve his problems, but exacerbates the contrary. And  the current relative calm on the borders only confirms this. Baku  realized that the shots were working against them as a result of  their own mistakes in April 2016 when the Vienna agreements appeared  before them. That is why the border is relatively calm today, "the  analyst concluded.

Since 1992, the OSCE Minsk Group, represented by the co-chairs from  Russia, the United States and France, has been involved in resolving  the Karabakh conflict. At present, the settlement process is  proceeding on the basis of the Madrid Principles put forward by the  OSCE Minsk Group in 2007 and the Madrid Principles updated in 2009,  among other things, providing for the deployment of a peacekeeping  force in the conflict zone.