It is quite difficult to assess the outgoing year in regard to the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. On the one hand, fortunately, this year, there was no mass bloodshed similar to what happened in April 2016, on the other hand, there was no much progress in terms of a peaceful settlement of the confrontation. At the same time, experts are inclined to consider security issues in the context of economic and political steps taken by the conflict parties. In this regard, the advantage is on Azerbaijan’s side as it managed to maintain its leading positions in the political and economic fields and also continued to strengthen the military power, providing the army with modern weapons and technique.
However, as the Assistant of the Azerbaijani President on public-political issues, Ali Hasanov, told the Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post, due to the various manifestations of separatism in the world, the superpowers often try to take advantage of this misfortune to ensure their own geo-strategic interests and divert the domestic and foreign policies of other countries , while the international organizations do not have a position of principle. This further complicates the situation and encourages the rise of ethnic separatism to a radical and aggressive level, causing suffering of millions of people. The great powers and leading world organizations did not show due attitude towards the Armenian separatism that arose in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. And this happens despite the fact that the demand for the separation of Nagorno-Karabakh, which does not have a geographic connection with Armenia, from Azerbaijan and its transfer to Armenia or the declaration of independence of this territory completely contradict both the international law and Azerbaijani legislation.
According to Hasanov, the main goal of the Armenian policy is to expand its territories at the expense of the Azerbaijani lands. Armenian nationalists have been mobilizing all their resources for this purpose for many years. Armenian ideologists developed the idea of a mythical state called ‘Great Armenia’ and brought up several generations of Armenians in the spirit of hatred of the neighboring nations... Despite the fact that during the Soviet Union the separatist movements of Armenians against Azerbaijan moved from the active to the relatively heated phase of the conflict, the central Armenian government continued to expel a large number of Azerbaijanis from Armenia, where our compatriots historically lived compactly. In 1948-1953, by the decision of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, about 150,000 Azerbaijanis were expelled from their historical lands in Armenia to Azerbaijan. On the eve of the collapse of the USSR, the separation of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region from Armenia and its transfer to Armenia was raised with the secret consent of the then USSR leadership. Against the background of these processes, more than 200,000 Azerbaijanis living in Armenia were forcibly expelled from their native lands. In other words, official Yerevan once again conducted a policy of ethnic cleansing. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Armenia launched an open-armed occupation, and in February 1992, the Armenian armed forces destroyed the city of Khojaly in the Nagorno-Karabakh region inhabited by Azerbaijanis and committed genocide against them. Continuing the occupation policy, Armenia occupied Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent areas, which is 20 percent of the territory of Azerbaijan. In the occupied territories, a policy of ethnic cleansing was carried out, and about a million Azerbaijanis became internally displaced persons.
Azerbaijan's position on the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is clear - the creation of a state on the internationally recognized territory of another state and violence on the ethnic and national grounds, and use of the armed methods to achieve this goal are unacceptable. Hasanov said: ”Of course, we are ready for a certain compromise and a constructive solution to the problem. In this regard, we are considering granting a broader autonomy to the Nagorno-Karabakh region within Azerbaijan, as well as ensuring the civil, socioeconomic and cultural rights of the Armenian population living there as the main way for a sustainable, effective and fair settlement of the conflict in accordance with the legislation of Azerbaijan and international legal norms. "
