Yesterday, during the visit of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev to Moscow, a multifaceted declaration of alliance was signed between Azerbaijan and Russia. The document, which will serve to strengthen relations between the two countries, contains 43 articles of great political, economic and strategic importance for Azerbaijan. The declaration also contains agreements contained in all strategic documents signed so far to develop cooperation between Azerbaijan and Russia. One of the most important points is that this declaration also includes articles on the Karabakh issue.

First of all, let's look at the questionable clauses of the declaration concerning Karabakh.

In the first paragraph, the parties speak of mutual respect for each other's independence, state sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of state borders, as well as non-interference in their internal affairs.

Russia's emphasis on the inviolability of Azerbaijan's sovereignty and integrity, and the fact that official Baku uses this clause to accept that the fight against the separatist-terrorist regime that still exists in Khankendi is an internal problem, underscores the importance of this clause.

As for the tenth point, it is said that the parties will cooperate in establishing a lasting peace between the countries of the region.

In addition, based on these two points, Baku is committed to the withdrawal of Armenian troops from Karabakh (paragraph 4), the return of Azerbaijanis to Armenian-populated areas (paragraph 7), the opening of communications, delimitation and demarcation of the border and, consequently, it can get support from Russia for the signing of a peace agreement.

Finally, in Article 18, the parties join forces in the fight against the threat of international terrorism, extremism and separatism. That is, in fact, joint military operations of the Azerbaijani army and Russian peacekeepers.

According to the declaration, Russia respects the sovereignty of Azerbaijan and, according to the logic of this paragraph, must accept the so-called regime in Karabakh as a threat of separatism. In short, Baku can use this agreement to overthrow the separatist-terrorist regime.

Is the document signed by Russia just a word on paper, or does it really mean leaving the South Caucasus alone with its sovereignty, which has been of a difficult step for Russia to take over the past three centuries?

To learn more about the nature and implementation of the declaration's clauses, Ednews learnt the views of political expert Samir Humbatov, head of the Centre for International Relations and Diplomatic Studies.

EDNews.net

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