Armenia Forces Azerbaijan into an Uncomfortable Position: Zhamanak

The newspaper 'Zhamanak' writes: 'In response to the statement made by the Armenian Minister of Defense that Baku should prepare its army for peace, Azerbaijan announced that its army is not preparing for peace, but for war. In this context, attention should be drawn to a subtle aspect of Armenian diplomatic and propaganda tactics, where Yerevan has begun to speak in the context of peace and a 'combination' of forcing peace. This means that on one hand, Armenia has significantly increased its rhetoric on peace, placing it within the context of mutual interests, while on the other hand, it pairs this with a vibrant rhetoric of changing its defensive strategy to an offensive one. As a result, Baku finds itself in quite an unfavorable position. Of course, it is naive to say that this is, so to speak, a fateful situation for Baku; however, Baku will indeed have to either speak according to Armenian logic or talk about war while forcibly rejecting the idea of peace.

If we also consider that the Armenian side’s rhetoric, built around aspects of peace, is delicately directed more towards the Azerbaijani public, leaving the authorities to transition from a defensive to an offensive strategy, thus imposing messages of peace, it effectively turns out that Baku starts to offer war in response to the Armenian side's offer of peace, both to the international community and its public. The ratio is not new here; in other words, the Armenian side has always been the one to propose and maintain peace, while Azerbaijan has been the one advocating for war. What is new in this case are the nuances and refinements that compel Baku to more prominently promote war and in fact find itself in a position where promoting war becomes self-serving or has to open up in those positions.

On a broader scale, another aspect deserves attention here. It is not armies that are ready for war or peace, or to impose peace, but states, that is, systems. Armies are part of them. The fact that our army is ready for heroic acts, thanks to both its spirit and sheer combat capabilities, is undeniable; this has been proven by both the first generation of the army and the new generation in 2016.

In this sense, the statements of the Minister of Defense, along with those of the Prime Minister, who gives political approval to these statements, are justified and important from the perspective of a cohesive state policy. However, all of this is not contradictory but should complement the consistent expansion and elevation of overall state capabilities, as being ready to impose peace requires the entire organism to function efficiently, or the effect of a single organ's capabilities will be severely limited because it cannot bear the burden of other non-functioning organs for long periods of time. In this regard, it is undeniable that despite the significant, fundamental changes in the situation following the Velvet Revolution, including in terms of better balancing the entire spectrum of state policy, the 'distribution' of the organs' performance— from the perspective of effectiveness—remains in a mode of imbalance that needs to be institutionally corrected as quickly as possible,' writes the newspaper.

For more details, see the newspaper's current issue.