Baku analysts claim remaining Armenian-Azerbaijani tensions

Despite the decreasing number of shootouts on Armenian-Azerbaijani contact line, the situation in the Karabakh conflict zone and on the border remains tense, Baku analysts assert. In their opinion, the internal political situation in Armenia is affecting the escalation.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the conflict escalated on July 12. Azerbaijan accused Armenia of trying to attack its positions. According to the Armenian side, the escalation of the situation in the region was triggered by an attempt to break through the border committed by the Azerbaijani troops. According to the official information, in the period from July 12 to July 27, six soldiers from the Armenian side were killed, while other 35 soldiers, two policemen, and one civilian were wounded. The authorities of Azerbaijan reported about 13 killed people, including 12 soldiers and one civilian, and four wounded soldiers.

After the July aggravation of the situation on the Tovuz border section, in August, the fire intensity began declining; and the statistics returned to the late June figures, Telman Abilov, the head of the NGO "Military Lawyers", told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

However, in his opinion, it's too early to talk about any stabilization of the situation. "Armenia failed to achieve its goal of capturing strategic heights in the Tovuz direction, which could have given it a chance to control Azerbaijan's export pipelines. However, judging by the ongoing daily shelling attacks on Azerbaijani positions in this direction, Armenia has not abandoned new provocations on the border," Mr Abilov has noted.

Shair Ramaldanov, a retired colonel and a former commander of the corps of the Azerbaijani Army, has stated that "the Armenia's position is affected by external factors – the foreign Diaspora, Russia and so on." Besides, in Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh has always been used as a trump card in the domestic political struggle.

All the Armenian regimes, as soon as they encountered difficulties in domestic politics, sought to provoke a conflict with Azerbaijan in order to divert the public attention to the "external threat". Nikol Pashinyan's government is no exception, Mr Ramaldanov has added.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 30, 2020 at 01:47 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.