By Vestnik Kavkaza
Today the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani arrived in Baku on an official visit. State flags of the two countries streamed on a square, and a guard of honor was formed for the President of Iran. Hassan Rouhani and Ilham Aliyev shook hands…
And suddenly a message came: a Mi-24 combat helicopter belonging to Armenia was heading northeast of the village of Kangerli in the Agdam Region and had attacked Azerbaijani positions.
However, it was a surprise only to ordinary people. The Azerbaijani military say that in the last three days Armenian combat aircraft and helicopters had made several flights near the frontline, and they were ready for the appearance of the Mi-24. As a result of firing from Azerbaijani positions, the helicopter was shot down and fell 500 meters from the frontline. According to preliminary information, three Armenian military personnel perished in the downed helicopter.
The international community reacted immediately. “Destruction of the Armenian combat helicopter could lead to escalation of the frozen conflict,” the General Secretary of the OSCE Lamberto Zannier stated at hearings in the Committee for Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament.
There is no sense of thinking about the reasons for sending a combat aircraft. Armenia is not ready for wide-scale military activities, while Azerbaijani military potential surpasses the Armenian one significantly. Experts believe that it was another provocation at the occupied territories. And it was rather impudent. Last time the situation became tense in the region in late July – early August. For several days shooting had been taking place between Armenian and Azerbaijani border guards; and there were victims on both sides. The situation almost led to war.
The Sochi summit of presidents Putin, Aliyev and Sargsyan released the tension. On August 10th, after a long pause, the heads of the three countries sat down to talk. A dialogue began and the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan expressed their readiness to continue it.
After the summit the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, stated that agreements on joint investigation of the incidents had been developed, as well as additional measures for prevention of such incidents.
However, it seems in Armenia there are forces which decided to violate the agreements. Some political forces in Yerevan considered the meeting of Serge Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev on September 4th at the initiative of the US State Secretary at the NATO summit in Newport and the talks on October 27th at the initiative of the French President in Paris non-committal. Francois Hollande stated then that it was high time to prepare an overall agreement. However, after today’s provocation it would be difficult to speak about improvement of trust measures.
One goal of the provocation is clear – the absence of any progress in the talks could undermine a settlement which is beneficial for some forces in Armenia, which are satisfied with the status quo, as Nagorno-Karabakh is actually controlled by Yerevan. Obviously, the provocation was an element of an internal political struggle in Armenia.
Provocateurs don’t care about victims or people’s suffering from senseless confrontation. Soldiers who dream about the end of the conflict have to fulfil the orders of politicians, which makes the military into hostages of the conflict. When will common sense win? When will people reject the idea of a monoethnic state and the exile of other nationalities from their lands? When will they stop sending their own sons to certain death?
