Azerbaijan's possible war against Armenia will be a war against Russia and CSTO, expert says
YEREVAN, April 22. /ARKA/. If Azerbaijan starts military operations against Armenia, it will mean a war against Russia and the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Ruben Melkonyan, a well--known Armenian Turkologist, said at a news conference today.
He said that after the occupation of part of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev is now feeding its people a new idea - the idea of "occupation of Zangezur" (another name for the southern Armenian province of Syunik, bordering Iran and Azerbaijan.
In a recent interview with one of the Azerbaijani TV channels, Aliyev threatened to take Zangezur by force, “whether Armenia wants it or not.”
“The creation of the Zangezur corridor fully meets our national, historical and future interests. We will be implementing the Zangezur Corridor, whether Armenia wants it or not. If Armenia wants to, we will solve this issue more easily, if it does not, we will solve it by force,” Aliyev said.
“Just as before and during the war, I said that they must free themselves from our lands, or we will expel them by force. And so it happened. The same will be the fate of the Zangezur corridor,” added Aliyev.
“Our main rival is time, because the construction of a railway and a highway takes time. Therefore, all forces have been mobilized to implement this project. Thus, the Azerbaijani people will return to Zangezur, which was taken away from us 101 years ago,” stressed Aliyev.
“Aliyev’s statements about the return of“their lands” are quickly spreading among Azerbaijanis,” Melkonyan said at a press conference on Thursday.
On the likelihood of Azerbaijan's war against Armenia, Melkonyan said the war against Armenia is a war against Russian-Armenian relations, against relations with the CSTO and therefore, a war against Armenia is a war against Russia and the CSTO countries.
On September 27, 2020, Azerbaijani armed forces, backed by Turkey and foreign mercenaries and terrorists, attacked Nagorno-Karabakh along the entire front line using rocket and artillery weapons, heavy armored vehicles, military aircraft and prohibited types of weapons such as cluster bombs and phosphorus weapons.
After 44 days of the war, on November 9, the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a statement on the cessation of all hostilities. According to the document, the parties stopped at where they were at that time. The town of Shushi, the districts of Agdam, Kelbajar and Lachin were handed over to Azerbaijan, with the exception of a 5-kilometer corridor connecting Karabakh with Armenia.
A Russian peacekeeping contingent was deployed along the contact line in Karabakh and along the Lachin corridor. Internally displaced persons and refugees are returning to Karabakh and adjacent regions, prisoners of war, hostages and other detained persons and bodies of the dead are being exchanged.--0-
