AZERBAIJAN’S STATEMENT – WHAT WILL RUSSIA’S REACTION BE?
In connection with the working visit of the President of the Republic of Artsakh to Moscow, the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan, as expected, issued a statement, assessing Russia’s granting an entry permit to Bako Sahakyan as ‘disruption of the efforts to advance the negotiation process, which runs counter to the mediation commitments of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair state’.
This is a fairly standard formulation that the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry used also in connection with the visits of the President of the Republic of Artsakh to Paris and Los Angeles, but the continuation is extremely remarkable. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry cites the Russian-Azerbaijani agreement on friendship, cooperation and mutual support, which, as it turns out, has the following wording: “The Parties undertake not to support separatist movements, as well as prohibit and suspend the activities of individuals against the state sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of the other Party”. Apparently, there are no such legal and contractual grounds in relations with France and the United States.
Otherwise, Azerbaijan would also remind official Paris and Washington about this. And in case of Russia, as we can see, Azerbaijan has allegedly reached the fixation of such legal-contractual obligations that should restrict and suspend even the activities of individuals in the territory of Russia, if they are aimed at supporting Artsakh or promoting the rights of Artsakh Armenians. We just have to wait for Russia's reaction – whether official Moscow considers the Artsakh issue as ‘a separatist movement’. The statement by the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry is formulated with the intention that in the respond of the Russian side, the legal-contractual basis of bilateral relations is noted.
Will the Russian Foreign Ministry take this step or will it follow the position of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing states, France and the United States, and will urge Azerbaijan to avoid using the current situation for making conclusions running counter to the logic of the negotiation process?
Vahram ATANESYAN