The West, by fueling revanchist sentiments in Armenia, is hindering the normalization of relations between Baku and Yerevan, Fuad Huseynaliyev, director of the Report News Agency, told CBC TV channel, Report informs.
"Fueling revanchist sentiments in Armenia itself will not affect Azerbaijan in any way. Militarily, we are significantly stronger than Armenia," he said.
Huseynaliyev emphasized that Azerbaijan, considering Armenia's militarization, continues to allocate significant funds from the state budget for defense and national security. According to him, even despite arms supplies to Armenia from the US, France, and India, Yerevan cannot compete with Baku in military potential.
"They won't even come close to Azerbaijan's military potential [...] Therefore, it would be better for the West to focus on resolving issues about achieving long-term peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia," said Huseynaliyev, expressing hope that the new administration of President-elect Donald Trump will help normalize relations between the two countries.
He also noted that the presence of the so-called EU observation mission on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border goes against the interests of the CSTO, of which Armenia is a member.
"They [the observation mission] have already gone beyond purely European observers. There are already Canadians there. Gradually, this is turning into some kind of NATO mission rather than EU observers. [...] This raises the question: how much do members of this bloc [CSTO] agree to NATO forces being in Armenia," noted Huseynaliyev, saying that such a conflict of interests does not contribute to regional security.
Huseynaliyev also emphasized that Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, in an interview with Russian media, outlined conditions for normalizing relations with Armenia - abandoning territorial claims against Azerbaijan and helping to eliminate the OSCE Minsk Group.
"The President has already emphasized that this group essentially doesn't function at all, but it cannot be eliminated unilaterally. [...] For some reason, Armenia still hasn't taken this step, possibly due to revanchist sentiments. The sooner Pashinyan realizes that such a destructive position doesn't contribute to Armenia's development, the better," he emphasized.
Regarding Armenia's increase in military budget, Huseynaliyev emphasized that Yerevan would be better off spending these funds not on armaments in an attempt to justify revanchist sentiments, but on regional economic integration and creating economic ties between Baku and Yerevan.
"The government and people of Armenia should understand it, as it will be the right path to achieving peace in the region. And this requires conditions and the absence of territorial claims. Azerbaijan has declared its readiness to move forward from the very beginning. Now the ball is in Armenia's court and it's up to them to decide what they want," Report's chief said.