Azerbaijan seeks to turn Nagorno-Karabakh into 'tabula rasa' - diplomat

Davit Sargsyan

With their policy of ethnic cleansing against the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), the Azerbaijani authorities virtually seek to depopulate that country to turn it into a special tabula rasa potentially offering home to an estimated 1 million refugees, according to Ambassador Arman Navasardyan, a former deputy foreign minister of Armenia.

In an interview with ArmNews TV Channel, the diplomat predicted a real likelihood of such a program, noting that Azerbaijan clearly sees the impossibility of stopping the ongoing war (facing pressure also by the Turkish president).

"If we cede Artsakh, we will have to hand over also Armenia to them. They want to build a nuclear power plant in Artsakh, whose lithosphere is rich in uranium. Russia is looking through fingers upon all this. [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan's top concern today deals with making his country a superpower," he said, ruling out any alternative to war as a necessary measure to avoid future defeat.

Commenting on the crushing strike against the military airport of Ganja, Navasardyan said he doesn't think that one single operation was not sufficient. In his words, that city must be under the Armenian troops' permanent spotlight. "It is necessary to deliver a crushing blow to the enemy, cross the Russian border through the Mrav mountain pass to hit also [the Azerbaijani city of] Yevlakh. It is necessary to eliminate the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway. The British [Secret Intelligence Service] Mi-6 is closely collaborating with the Turkish intelligence and is, by definition, indirectly taking part in the war against Artsakh. [British Prime Minister] Boris Johnson has given a special warning for ensuring the oil pipeline's security."

The former deputy minister said he also sees an unwillingness by the Russian and US leaders to end the ongoing hostilities. But he agreed that Moscow will have its decisive say should Armenia appear under attack. "We should forget about the Collective Security Treaty Organization; geopolitical re-arrangements are now going on, receiving, for example, the United Kingdom's approval. There's no need to even destroy the pipeline; all we need to do is to establish control to separate Azerbaijan from Russia. What matters is also the fact that drinking and irrigation water goes from Armenia to Azerbaijan; we need to cut off that supply."

The diplomat also highlighted Russia's somewhat suspicious attitude to Azerbaijan as a state which has ceded part of its sovereignty to Turkey. "Russia will be facing the problem in the couple of years to come. The scenario of the 2008 operations in Georgia needs to be applied here. Azerbaijan['s population] may split into ethnic minorities. Russia is being encircled from all sides today, with turmoils being provoked in Kyrgyzstan and Belarus. The Russians themselves admit that should they fail to halt the terrorists in the Caucasus, they will have to do that on the outskirts of Kazan sometime in the future."

The diplomat went on to note that Israel has turned Azerbaijan into a special "base area" against Iran, following Washington's instructions. "Israel's intelligence and satellite operations in Azerbaijan are aimed at conducting a site examination in Iran. Azerbaijan is an Israeli base area close to Iran. Hence, it is important for our diplomacy to focus its active efforts on Iran; their reaction is not sufficient," the diplomat said.