Opinion70- Page

It seems that Europe has long been aware of the criminal ties of Ruben Vardanyan, a Russian billionaire of Armenian origin and a crook, who recently became the "state minister of Artsakh".

For a man who just renounced his Russian citizenship in a blaze of publicity, billionaire oligarch Ruben Vardanyan surprisingly left a lot behind.

Iran using children as a tool against Azerbaijan is certainly a provocation that should be strongly condemned. Such actions are despicable and completely inappropriate in any political context, says former US ambassador to Azerbaijan, former US Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, and Jamestown Foundation Board Member Matthew Bryza.

After consultations in Tehran with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, dubbed by reformists behind his back the "silver fox" of centuries-old Iranian diplomacy, Iranian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Seyed Abbas Mousavi made a more than bizarre statement.

Azerbaijan’s parliament announced on Friday, November 18, 2022, that it initiated the process of opening an embassy in the State of Israel. It is the first Shi’ite Muslim-majority country to do so.

Using children as tools of military provocation is unacceptable under international law. Unfortunately, the authoritarian regime in Iran ignores all international principles.

Today is the 26th day of the Azerbaijani environmentalists' protest on the Lachin-Shusha-Khankendi road. And for the 26th day Armenia is trying to feed its version of the events about "120,000 Artsakh people suffering in the blockade", "separated families", "sick people who cannot be transported to Armenia" etc. to the world media.

Losing hope of somehow influencing Azerbaijanis' peaceful protest, which has been going on for 25 days on the Shusha-Khankendi road, the separatists continue to push for sympathy. This time they decided to bring back the OSCE Minsk Group, may it rest in peace.

The European Union (EU) played  practically no mediating role between Armenia and Azerbaijan over their territorial conflict until the Second Karabakh War in late 2020.

Foreign Armenian lobbyists continue living their "Karabakh activity" season. And it is hardly a coincidence that this surge happened soon after the notorious Ruben Vardanyan showed up in Karabakh.

A series of events in recent months marked a sharp increase in France's efforts to establish its presence in the South Caucasus at the expense of the sovereignty of Azerbaijan. Let us briefly enumerate the events.

Farhad Mammadov, political scientist and head of the South Caucasus Research Centre, has commented on the anti-Azerbaijani policy of France on his Telegram channel.

In 2022, Vardanyan escaped Western sanctions against Russia by theatrically renouncing his citizenship and moving to Karabakh, under the wing of Russian peacekeepers.

Amid the ongoing peaceful protests of Azerbaijanis against the illegal exploitation of mineral deposits in the area of temporary deployment of Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh, the Armenian Foreign Ministry has made another bewildering statement.

On January 16-18, Baku will host an official meeting of Israel's ambassadors to Eurasian countries that will be attended by high-ranking officials from the central office of the Foreign Ministry.

The anti-Azerbaijani frenzy in Iran rages on. Iranian television aired yet another provocative program concerning Azerbaijan. This time, the platform for pro-Armenian heresy was provided by the state-owned Sahar TV.

The actions of official French authorities are those of political dwarfs. While the whole world was celebrating the New Year, the Embassy of France in Yerevan committed a boorish provocation against Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan has obtained perfect news at the end of the year from the UN Security Council and this will guarantee a great New Year's mood. As is known, France and Armenia convened a meeting of the UN Security Council on the situation on the Azerbaijani Lachin road on December 21.

In an interview with Caliber, Dr Farid Shafiyev, Chairman of the Centre of Analysis of International Relations, shared his thoughts on the main developments of 2020 in the context of

Azerbaijan is the only country in the South Caucasus which has consistently supported Ukraine. Baku’s support is backed by that of Turkey, Azerbaijan’s strategic ally since the 2020 Second Karabakh War.

Both Iran and Azerbaijan are countries with a Muslim Shiite majority. But the difference between them is abysmal and now this is also expressed in a visible tension between them.

On December 24, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev viewed the conditions created in the administrative building of the Community of West Azerbaijan as well as met with a group of intellectuals from West Azerbaijan.