Baku’s problems over Karabakh

Official Baku stresses that Armenia is ignoring the principles of regulating the Karabakh conflict suggested by the OSCE Minsk Group, and the Madrid principles too, but no pressure is being put on it by the international community. Azeri newspaper Zerkalo comments that the normalisation of Armenian-Turkish relations means Armenia is winning rather than losing by taking such steps.

Baku is now taking some controversial steps, such as flirting with Moscow and thus straining its relations with the West, but Baku has not received from Moscow the kind of support it wanted. Moscow did not take Baku’s side, and thus betray Yerevan. Baku has tried to apply pressure on Turkey through its energy transport, but this has not worked either.

Azerbaijan now has a threefold problem. It has received no relief concerning Karabakh, Baku’s flirtation with Russia has not yielded positive results and relations with Turkey have become somewhat controversial. Although Azerbaijan will not change its position on Karabakh, upholding it continues to cause problems.