Konstantin Zatulin called Azerbaijan's "retribution" operation an attempt at repression
Azerbaijan's military action is an attempt to put pressure on Armenia at the border, said Konstantin Zatulin, the first deputy chairman of the CIS Committee of the State Duma. In a conversation with Lenta.ru, he responded to the recent escalation between the two countries, and also talked about the prospects of signing a peace treaty.
According to the deputy, the new episode of the confrontation once again increases the tension in the relations of traditionally hostile countries. "It is difficult for me to judge who is right and who is wrong from the point of view of who started first, as they say before a fight in the yard, but whoever started first, it is obvious that Azerbaijan used it as a strength and a pretext for revenge and is spreading this information today as another victory in the confrontation with Armenia. Of course, this rhetoric clearly does not aim to reach an agreement, it is most likely an attempt to exert pressure," said Zatulin. Azerbaijan is interested in Armenia giving up as much as possible when signing any agreement, the parliamentarian believes. He added that Baku took a break to hold presidential elections, during which Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev added fuel to the fire by voting in Stepanakert, which the locals call Khankendi and where there is no Armenian population. "I have nothing against Azerbaijan's elections, this is their internal problem, but these elections were highly influenced by the winner's syndrome, which was confirmed by Aliyev's vote in Stepanakert. I think this is a reflection of the fact that, according to everything, at the moment there is no atmosphere and concrete conditions for signing a peace treaty, recognizing territorial integrity, etc. Controversies about it continue, and a logical question that arises not only in Armenia, but all over the world is that Pashinyan's government, which recognized Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan, refused all support from its compatriots, swallowed mass emigration from Karabakh and, in addition, , aggravated relations with Russia, what did he gain in that way, if there is no wonderful new world, but there are such conflicts as yesterday and today? "Apparently, we are far from real peace in Transcaucasia," he said. Unilateral victories, like the victories achieved by Azerbaijan and Turkey over Karabakh, do not lead to immediate peace, but lay the seeds of new conflicts and episodes of confrontation, the deputy concluded.
