During his speech at the “European Integration as an auxiliary for the Karabakh conflict settlement” international seminar organized by the “Caucasian Center for Peacemaking Initiatives”, A. Aliev said that the reason that the sides haven’t reached an agreement until now is the lack of trust. He adds that the more the Karabakh conflict remains unsettled, the more the hatred between the two countries grows. Aliev is certain that the conflict must be settled peacefully through the means of compromises. In fact, according to him, the Azeri don’t want a war.
“If the people wanted a war, then they would demand that the authorities start one. That way they would reach their goal,” he says.
The journalist is of the opinion that the sides must make the compromises based on the phased version proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen. In other words, they must solve all the issues connected to the Karabakh conflict and leave Karabakh’s final status referendum for later. In fact, the Azeri journalist says that only the Armenians and Azeri who have lived and continue living in Karabakh should have the right to participate in the referendum. According to him, none of the negotiations between the two presidents have been productive so far.
“Azerbaijan’s war declarations have turned into some kind of tradition. After each unsuccessful negotiation with the Armenian side, Azerbaijan declares that ‘its army can liberate the seized territories if necessary’. The Azeri authorities also realize that the “if necessary” is just a joke for the society. The successes in oil projects created an illusion for Azerbaijan and made it think that it can reign supreme in the Southern Caucasus. They thought that they could tell Armenia what to do with the oil sales, attract the West and get their support. But that’s not the case. Twelve years after the ceasefire agreement, Armenia and Azerbaijan haven’t even come close to settling the conflict. The negotiations weren’t fruitful with the help of the international intermediaries and Armenia and Azerbaijan stay true to their orientations. Nothing is being done to prepare the people for peace,” says the journalist.
According to Aliev, the Azeri who lost the war and the Armenians who won consider the people ready to settle the conflict and start a dialogue as enemies.
“If we’re not getting ready for war, then let’s talk. Let’s talk about the people with high reputations in society and the ones that are not held accountable to Moscow, Paris or Washington,” says the Azeri journalist.
Another journalist by the name of Seymur Bayjan says that Armenians and Azeri are like wild animals-they can’t meet and talk about the issues without the help of others.
“There is no trust and we are forced to tolerate the presence of foreign powers. Time shows us that that’s not helping,” says Seymur Bayjan.
The Azeri journalists also suggest setting a ban on the hatred propaganda and instill trust in the two countries.
“As the winning side, Armenia is going towards a settlement. But since Azerbaijan lost the war and feels pressured by that, it considers Armenia an enemy when it comes time to negotiate. The two can compromise even now through the means of negotiations,” says Aliev.
As we can see, Alekper Aliev has a rather constructive approach to the Karabakh conflict settlement. Today, both pro-government and oppositional parties of Azerbaijan are rather aggressive towards this issue. They consider any proposal, which is even a little “in favor of Armenia” as betrayal. As a matter of fact, when a journalist from the Azeri “Obozreyevatel” newspaper dared to pay a visit to Karabakh, he was immediately fired. I asked Alekper Aliev if he wasn’t afraid of getting fired too. He says that Azeri feel more pain when going to Karabakh than when they go to Armenia. Besides that, Alekper says that his colleague from “Obozreyevatel” got his job back after the Journalists’ Union of Azerbaijan criticized his firing. According to Alekper, after that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan said:
“Anyone can go to Karabakh because that’s Azerbaijan’s land. Anyone can go to Baku because that’s their country.”
Armenian society is rather tolerant towards the Azeri. In contrast to Baku, Azeri also participate in the seminars organized in Yerevan. However, the Azeri authorities don’t give security guarantees to the Armenians taking part in the seminars held in Baku. In regard to this, Aliev said that there have been seminars organized in the past, but only in the past two years have Armenians felt insecure.
“There are few extremists in Azerbaijan, but they are unpredictable. Azerbaijan is a country of contradictions. If they find out you’re Armenian, they might just kill you on the street or hug you. Currently, 95% of Armenians in Azerbaijan are female. We have Armenian taxi drivers, teachers, but nobody says anything to them, although they also can’t say that they are Armenian on the street.”