Has Yerevan turned out to be teachable?

The last visit of Louis Bono, Senior adviser to the US State Department for Negotiations in the South Caucasus, to Armenia was not particularly memorable. It was an ordinary visit within the framework of the activity demonstrated by the United States in the field of the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process. 

The United States is pushing the parties to sign peace as soon as possible and is holding meetings. That's all. It's just that Bono visits Armenia more often than Baku, which, in principle, is not surprising since it depends on her behaviour whether peace will be signed and how soon.

The only noticeable detail of Louis Bono's July visit was that the Armenian media and officials finally stopped representing him as the "co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group." The Armenian Foreign Ministry was the first to forget about this non-existent status, ceasing to call Bono a neighbour back in February. The Security Council held out to the last, as evidenced by official reports about the American's March visit to Yerevan. Now the Security Council has also surrendered. During his visit, Louis Bono was the senior adviser to the US State Department on negotiations in the South Caucasus for the Armenians only.

In Armenian public media, this reconciliation with reality is called "fulfilling Baku's demands," and they express dissatisfaction. But not very actively. It seems that the neighbours are starting to get used to the fact that everything that Baku requires comes to an end.

It is finally being implemented. And this is not because of Nikol Pashinyan's weakness or betrayal, but because all the demands of Azerbaijan are legitimate, logical and fair.
Almost immediately after the Second Karabakh War, Azerbaijan announced the physical demise of the Minsk Group. Morally, this structure died as soon as it was born. Azerbaijan has stated that the conflict is over and no mediation group is needed anymore. MG did not play any positive role during the years of occupation, especially since it is pointless to preserve it today. However, the Minsk Group has not yet been officially abolished, which is why certain circles apparently want to demonstrate that they do not consider the Karabakh conflict to be over.

In Baku, everyone sees and understands everything, therefore, President Ilham Aliyev unobtrusively, but persistently and categorically stated that the region no longer needs the services of the MG and it is necessary to dissolve it so that false ideas are not created. During a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, the head of state said that it was time to officially end the activities of the non-functional OSCE Minsk Group and all related institutions in order to completely close the page of the conflict, which has already become a relic of the past.

This was also discussed at a meeting with the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Minister of Foreign, European Affairs and Trade of the Maltese Republic, Jan Borg, who visited Baku in May. President Ilham Aliyev told the guest that it was time to abolish the OSCE Minsk Group and all related institutions. Stressing that the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict has already remained in history and does not exist, the head of state said that the Azerbaijani side raised this issue, and there are no reasons why Armenia would not agree to this.

Armenia does not say "yes" or "no". The existence of such a structure, at least on paper, suits the Armenian side. Of course, Yerevan understands that if the institution of the co-chairs, representing powerful powers, could not do anything with Azerbaijan during the occupation, it, moreover, would not be able to do anything today. But the Armenian side is somehow calmer from this mirage, deception. They are pleased to deceive themselves by claiming that the Minsk Group de facto does not exist, not because of the end of the conflict, but because Washington and Paris have quarrelled with Moscow. This is exactly the opinion of the Prime Minister of Armenia. More precisely, he voices this opinion, although he most likely understands what's on his mind.

This is how Nikol Pashinyan reacted to the call of the Azerbaijani President to jointly appeal to the OSCE to abolish the OSCE Minsk Group. This proposal was made during a meeting between President Ilham Aliyev and members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Turkic States (TURKPA).

"We have already proposed to the Armenian side that Azerbaijan and Armenia jointly make an appeal to the OSCE to abolish the Minsk Group. There is no need for it, it is not functioning now. We will not, de facto, allow it to function. As for de jure, legally it should be abolished, and this will show how sincere Armenia is," the head of state said, warning that if Armenia prefers to preserve the MG, it will mean that its territorial claims against Azerbaijan continue.

Yerevan had to respond to these words somehow. Speaker Alain Simonyan tried to be clever, saying something like that the Minsk Group would cease to exist after the signing of the peace treaty and that Baku was making such demands in order to delay the achievement of peace. Nikol Pashinyan found his original way out of the situation, saying in parliament: "We understand that the members of the OSCE Minsk Group did not communicate with each other after February 2022 and even before that. In other words, the OSCE Minsk Group as such does not de facto exist."

Yerevan has assumed a pose of denial, but as we can see from the reduction of Mr. Bono's regalia in the Armenian media, our neighbours are still not as untrained as it might seem. They still know how to draw the right conclusions and act properly.
After all that Armenia has done, Azerbaijan is simply outrageously humane and tries not to break its criminal neighbour too much. Not because he is sorry or afraid of Yerevan or its guardians, but because Baku is betting on the future, on a peaceful sky for future generations and normal relations in the region.

No one else would do this to an enemy who has been destroying and ravaging for thirty years what does not belong to him. Armenia should be grateful to Azerbaijan for demanding the smallest thing from it - to delete territorial claims from the Constitution and support the abolition of the Minsk Group. For the fourth year, Baku has been patiently corresponding with Yerevan on the text of the peace treaty, although it can simply hit the table with its fist and everything will be resolved instantly. He would have done so if he didn't want this world to be long-term and strong.

Today, the reduction of Louis Bono's regalia is interpreted by Armenian demagogues as a humiliating deflection to the demands of Baku. And what is the humiliation here? To do the right thing, even under pressure, does not mean to humiliate yourself. With its stubbornness and vague hopes to win back everything, Armenia has only condemned itself to daily humiliation. Bickering with Azerbaijan will not help her gain honour and dignity. Which were lost thirty years ago.