As the authors of the letter write, the letter is signed by 101 Azeri intellectuals and is addressed to the people of Armenia. Compared to the critical announcements and approach of Azerbaijan, this letter may be considered as “a peace initiative”. Even though the letter writes about the necessity of peace, it contains hidden threats, as well as warnings about the consequences of war. The mentioned letter writes about the importance of establishing peace and recommends an original version of doing that. “All wars end sooner or later”, as stated in the letter of Azeri intelligentsia to Armenians and adds, “but now the peaceful settlement of the conflict has found itself in a deadlock because Azerbaijan will never agree with the idea of founding a “Republic of Nagorno Karabakh” and Armenian political leaders will never agree to return lands to Azerbaijan. The Armenian opposition will use such steps to accuse the current authorities of treason”. According to the authors, the current “neither war nor peace” situation can’t last long. According to them, Armenia and Azerbaijan are currently in a cold war and this is creating difficulties for both Armenia and Azerbaijan. As a result of this situation, many Azeri think that the only way out of that situation is war and are actively getting ready for it. If the conflict is not settled peacefully, the intellectuals recommend the people of both countries to settle the conflict themselves. “Romans had a good habit of not fighting with their enemies more than once because each time they fought, their enemies had an opportunity to improve and become more powerful,” as stated in the letter. The letter also says that during the past couple of years, there have been many changes in the world and particularly in the region. In their letter they write that they don’t want to speak about the success of Azerbaijan, but rather want to only speak about relations with Armenia and try to bring up new facts to prove that there should be an establishment of peace. One of those facts is their assurance that in case of a new war, Azerbaijan will not have small, disorganized fighting groups, but rather a strong and organized army. “Secondly, it is no secret that Azerbaijan will be supported by military advisors of Turkey, Pakistan and NATO, as well as volunteers from ally countries. Third, Azerbaijan no longer has a blockade on the flow of information just like back in the 90s,” write the reporters and add that the fourth point is the fact that during the past years, the Azeri Diaspora of the world has grown and they learned from Armenia to mobilize that Diaspora. Their fifth point is the fact that Azerbaijan couldn’t start a new war while building oil pipelines. But now that it has finished doing that, it has all the necessary financial and political resources to start a new war. “The West understands this very well and this is the reason why they are more active recently to support the conflict settlement process. If there aren’t any serious changes in the negotiations process soon, the war will be restarted either in spring or summer 2007”, write the reporters and add, “we’re not saying that we will win the war for sure, no matter how sure the Azeri are of that. Even if we lose the war, the morality of people will be the same and the new victory will not give anything new to Armenia”. Besides that, the reporters recommend us Armenians to imagine what will happen to the morality of Armenians if they lose the war. According to that, if Azerbaijan wins that war, it will bring up new principles, which will make the positions of Armenia weaker. According to Azeri intelligentsia, both Armenians and Azeri don’t want a new war. According to them, people still remember everything. Furthermore, if we take into account the fact that the armies of both countries are stronger now, we can be sure that the new war will be more cruel and thus will force both of the countries to stay away from peace. “Please don’t forget that during the Soviet era, our countries had good ties and there used to be mixed marriages. It is no secret that there are over 30.000 such families in Azerbaijan now. Azeri and Armenian people are in good relations and have business contacts”, note the representatives of Azeri intelligentsia. They say that they don’t want to speak about the general truth and want to propose a universal method for establishing peace. “We recommend you to organize a referendum in Armenia to return at least 6 regions to Azerbaijan (Aghdam, Fizuli, Zangelan, Jebrajil, Ghubatli). Positive results of the referendum will increase both the reputation of Armenia and Azerbaijan in the world. This will then allow the Armenian authorities to sign a peace agreement”, as stated in the letter. In addition, the mentioned letter can be considered as an attempt to shake hands with Armenia. “You won’t find the names of any well-known Azeri intellectuals below so as not to think that this letter is a PR act supported by the Azeri authorities,” concludes the letter of the intelligentsia of Azerbaijan addressed to the Armenian people.
P.S. On July 17, we were informed by the RA ministry of foreign affairs that they hadn’t been informed about the mentioned letter and thus couldn’t say anything about it.