After the Pashinyan-Trump-Aliyev meeting in Washington, Azerbaijan has not changed its expansionist policy toward Armenia; it is merely trying to conceal and veil it. This was stated by Azerbaijan expert Tatevik Ayrapetyan.
According to her, an interesting trend emerged after the meeting: any information containing signs of expansionist policy is not translated into Russian or English and can only be found in Azerbaijani. Moreover, Ayrapetyan continued, after the meeting the so-called “Western Azerbaijan community” addressed Aliyev, congratulating him on his success. “Information about this letter was not only untranslated into Russian and English, it was not even included in the general news feed. In other words, one had to know where to look and actively search for it,” she said. According to the expert, the current situation indicates one thing: unfortunately, there are no deep changes or renunciation of expansionist policy in Azerbaijan.
Ayrapetyan emphasized that in reality, the discussions about so-called “Western Azerbaijan” are not just propaganda; this is a fundamental policy entrenched throughout Azerbaijan, including in the education system. “Under conditions where Azerbaijani children are taught from the 5th grade that the Armenian SSR was formed on Azerbaijani territory and that Armenia never existed in this territory, it is quite difficult to speak of imminent peace and neighborly relations. Unfortunately, the Armenian authorities do not want to understand and acknowledge the deep processes taking place in Azerbaijan, and, based on understanding these processes, to build dialogue both with Baku and with international partners. This is not happening; instead, an ostrich-like policy is being pursued, which is difficult to comprehend and accept,” she said, adding that in Armenia, desired outcomes are often presented as reality.
In this context, Ayrapetyan recalled that a few days ago, several Azerbaijani media outlets spread information claiming that, by the order of Ilham Aliyev, organizations connected to the so-called “Western Azerbaijan” were being liquidated in Azerbaijan. “I was the first to refute this information because, after checking all these structures, I confirmed the opposite. Yet, pro-government media and Telegram channels began actively spreading this information. In other words, Azerbaijani fabrications were presented by our own resources as reality,” she said.