Nagorno Karabakh: tensions with Baku and Ankara, Armenia appeals to the UN

Yerevan rejects Azerbaijani accusations of a troop concentration at the border. The call for an extraordinary convocation of the Security Council. Putin's visit to Turkey is expected at the end of August, priority on the grain deal. The future of the disputed territory will not be independence, but a reasonable autonomy in Azerbaijani territory in harmony with the Armenians.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - Armenia's defense ministry has rejected Azerbaijan's accusations of the concentration of troops at the border together with new loads of armaments, denying for the umpteenth time that it has deployed armed forces on the Nagorno Karabakh border.

Baku warned that "it maintains the right to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity with all the legal means available". According to the Azeris, the Armenians have activated war engineering works and other actions that violate international law and the commitments assumed by Yerevan in the agreements of November 9, 2020, referring in particular to the "radio-electronic means of struggle".

The areas where the Armenians are allegedly concentrating their weapons would be those of the Azerbaijani territory where the Russian peacekeepers are temporarily stationed: a "demilitarized zone" where the Armenians are coming forward to "re-propose their territorial claims", according to the Foreign Ministry of Baku. Accusations in turn reproached by the Armenians against them, which also concern firefights on both sides between Kelbadžar and Nakhičevan.

Yerevan, following these umpteenth verbal clashes and in the field, has decided to address the UN with the request for an extraordinary convocation of the Security Council to "deal with the issue of the blockade of the Lačin corridor and the danger of a total humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh".

The Armenians insists that "only the UN is able to enforce the conditions of peace and international security, preventing mass destructive actions such as war crimes, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity and genocides”.

Armenia has also turned to US President Joe Biden, to use "all instruments of pressure on Azerbaijan, including the suspension of military aid", as stated by the member of the House of Representatives of the US Congress Jim McGovern.

The Washington Post commented on the report by former international tribunal chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo, who spoke of Azerbaijan's "genocide of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh" using "hunger, the invisible weapon of genocide", inciting in turn the United Nations to take charge of the problem.

According to Armenian political observer Akop Badalyan, Yerevan's appeal to the UN is forcing Baku to react "not capable of negatively affecting its international reputation", even though he considers it unlikely that the UN will approve a document condemning the 'Azerbaijan.

The "language of threats and blackmail" is therefore being used by the Azerbaijanis not only against the Armenians, but against the entire international community.

The aggressive statements by Azerbaijan against the Armenians have been joined in recent days by some official positions of Turkey, which in turn warns Armenia not to "seek provocations" and to respect the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. According to Ankara "there is no reason to criticize Azerbaijan in the question of the territory of Lachin".

Badalyan believes that these positions of the Turks should be considered "in a broader geopolitical context", in view of Vladimir Putin's visit to Turkey expected for the end of August, in which the priority will be the restoration of the agreement on wheat, Recep's main diplomatic weapon Tayyip Erdogan.

The political scientist maintains that "Azerbaijan's actions and Turkey's support are aimed at raising Turkey's price for Russia, which is very sensitive to the need to avoid a second front in the Caucasus".

Ankara also intervenes in this game to throw its cards in the wider market, and the UN could at least make the Azeris understand that threats and acts of force are worth nothing in global negotiations. The future of Nagorno Karabakh will probably not be independence, but a reasonable autonomy in Azerbaijani territory, and in harmony with its Armenian brothers.