Ceasefire agreement was Heydar Aliyev’s major achievement: Markov
“The signing of the ceasefire agreement was a great achievement at the time, which allowed us to stop the war and death of thousands of people. It was a great achievement of the leader of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, who was then interested in stopping the Armenian military units that hatched plans to capture other parts of Azerbaijan.” Sergei Markov, a Russian public figure, political scientist, and Director of the Institute for Political Studies, told the Russian Bureau of Report.
“History has shown that it was the right decision. Azerbaijan’s economy began to overgrow, as well as the oil and gas sector developed significantly owing to achieved peace. Based on this large-scale transformation, Baku has become a magnificent city that attracts the attention of millions of people. The country created excellent infrastructure, and the growing population of Azerbaijan received a significantly higher standard of living.”
“During the 26 years of the “ceasefire,” Azerbaijan and Armenia did not come to a common denominator on the conflict. The negotiations on the settlement have not yielded any results. There are several contradictions. The first is that the current situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict fixes the balance of forces that was 26 years ago. Now the balance of forces has changed significantly in favor of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan does not capture what belongs to others. Therefore, the conflict situation should be relevant to the new changes of forces by the law on geopolitics, which is not easy to do.”
According to Markov, the second contradiction in settlement of this conflict is the support of the United States and France for Armenia. “The peaceful path of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is complicated since the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk group – the United States, France, and Russia-are the countries where the Armenian Diaspora enjoys the greatest influence. Therefore, it is challenging to achieve a peaceful settlement through the OSCE Minsk group.”
“These contradictions are the main reason why no changes have occurred over the years. Nevertheless, the so-called “Kazan formula” was developed at the initiative of Russia, and Russia insists on its implementation. We have reason to believe that perhaps this “Kazan formula” will be implemented, which will lead to a sharp rise in peace and security in the region and will be an essential step in the Nagorno-Karabakh regulation. Not final, but a significant.”