YEREVAN (Realist English). Azerbaijani troops entered the village of Teh with the permission of the Armenian authorities. Armenian diplomat and analyst David Karapetyan stated this on his Facebook page.
“The fact is that the Azerbaijanis, with the permission of our authorities, possibly as a result of internal agreements, penetrated into the village of Teh in the Syunik region, occupying more than 100 square kilometers of the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia… Contrary to the statements of the authorities, the enemy did not retreat a meter. On the contrary, it laid a bridgehead for himself, completed fortification and engineering works on arable land owned by local residents.
Therefore, the problem has not been solved, but rather has become more complicated. I have said many times that the enemy will not leave the occupied lands voluntarily. We all know that the government has taken an incomprehensible and unshakable political line aimed at establishing “peace” …
The head of state excludes the use of military force to expel the enemy from his sovereign territory — under any circumstances. At the same time, we note that the Prime Minister actually has neither the will nor the desire to solve such problems. The old spirit, if it really was, has long been exhausted, and the calls to manifest the “spirit” have disappeared…
He is weak and infirm. No government, no leader… Today, he only performs the function of a journalist who informs the public about the situation, about the past. And this is natural. A journalist should be engaged in the news… what else can you expect from him?
At best, apart from spreading the information typical of the yellow press, he can act with provincial cunning and “blow dust” in the eyes of the others with manipulations and plausible lies… In any case, this is our tragedy, our stigma and our shame,” Karapetyan said.
How to get out of this situation? The analyst suggests not to oppose the EU Mission in Armenia with the intentions of the CSTO to send its own contingent to the line of contact with the Baku gangs:
“What prevents us from organizing a joint mission along the entire Armenian-Azerbaijani line of contact? For example, in the following proportion: one of the observers is an EU citizen, and the other is an observer from the CSTO countries with military powers. If Russia is really sincere and wants to exclude further escalation and occupation, then why can’t it overcome its jealousy and allow the presence of the EU civilian mission, which consists of only 100 people? And this is on the contact line, the length of which exceeds 1400 km…
The more so that their functions are very symbolic and their physical presence will not interfere with the CSTO observer mission.… If the CSTO’s proposal to deploy its observers along the entire line of contact is still relevant, which, by the way, was made by them on their own initiative, without Armenia’s request to the organization, then what prevents the current Armenian authorities from accepting their proposal? Moreover, there is an official readiness of the CSTO to take on such a function.
I am more than confident that in the case of such a proposal, if the issue of joint representation with EU observers is correctly and competently raised, it will be possible to reach a consensus with Russia. Each of these two missions will perform its function without interfering with the work of colleagues.” At the same time, Karapetyan calls for “clearly defining their functions both in the event of a large-scale war and in case of local escalations and provocations.”
“However, all this does not mean a final solution to the issues. The observers will not fight for us in the war imposed on us. The monitoring mission is designed for monitoring and reporting. They can’t even prevent local escalation. And then — these missions are temporary. Observers cannot stay on the line of contact forever. Therefore, you can only count on your own army. But here the picture is different,” the expert stressed.
Karapetyan believes that the current government in Armenia deliberately weakens the army:
“How can you count on the army with such authorities, if their goal is the complete destruction of the army. Replacing the army with border guards of the National Security Service is one of the next steps of the government. Imagine that there will be no more troops on the border! Aliyev still sees an army in front of him, in a confrontation with which he will not dare to cut the Vayots Dzor region, from Jermuk to Nakhichevan.
And this is taking into account the fact that the National Security Service (NSS), unlike the Armenian Armed Forces, has 20 times fewer personnel, the service has a limited number of weapons, it is not combat-ready and does not have such units as the army. By placing the NSS border guards in the Teh community, the Armenian authorities actually confirmed that Azerbaijan is located behind the villages of Kornidzor-Teh-Avarus…
Moreover, if the Azerbaijanis could not establish a checkpoint in the Lachin corridor, instead they managed to establish it in the village of Tech. It turns out that even if the Shushi intersection, closed by Azerbaijani “eco-activists”, is opened, the entire section of the Goris-Stepanakert road will no longer be free for movement, as it was before.
I tend to think that the scenario leads exactly to this! After the final placement of Azerbaijanis in the community of Teh, after the arrangement of new sites, they will establish a checkpoint there. As soon as it is ready, the “eco-activists” will leave the highway near Shusha, as their “mission” will be completed and their services will no longer be needed. The Azerbaijani checkpoint in the village of Teh will ensure a continuous total blockade of Artsakh. In fact, Azerbaijan will receive the checkpoint requested from the Armenians, but not in the “Lachin corridor”. And so it is much more profitable for him.
At the same time, a number of Armenian villages near Stepanakert, which are located near the Lachin corridor, are also cut off from land communication with Armenia and are under siege by the Azerbaijanis. As a result, Azerbaijan is expanding its borders. Moreover, it places a checkpoint on the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia, and this remains without any response from the authorities…
Moreover, in response to Lavrov’s statement and our claims that there is not a word about checkpoints in the Lachin corridor in the statement of November 9, Azerbaijan confirms this, saying that yes, there really is no Azerbaijani checkpoint in the Lachin corridor (the section from the village of Akhavno to Stepanakert)…
It turns out that when traveling from Goris to Stepanakert, before getting into the “Lachin corridor”, which is under the control of Russian peacekeepers, you need to pass through an Azerbaijani checkpoint in the village of Tech. The same is true from Stepanakert to Goris. Before getting to the Russians, the Azerbaijanis will demand mandatory inspection of Armenian cars and cargo at this checkpoint… This is the worst scenario that can happen, especially for Artsakh and the Artsakh Armenians. And this is just the beginning.”
According to Karapetyan, “the picture is really sad and very dangerous”: “I have not yet voiced a number of concerns and very likely scenarios. Do the Armenian authorities know about this? I think they know… God only knows what they’re doing. And we know only one thing: the Armenian government continues to act guided by the logic of avoiding escalation and tautology about the proverbial “peace”.”
