By Edmond Y. Azadian
As Armenia struggles to improve its sluggish economy, threats of war loom at its borders once again.
Turkey and Azerbaijan have joined forces to intensify the psychological warfare against Armenia. Azerbaijan has submitted a second resolution at the UN to be voted on at the forthcoming General Assembly. As did the previous resolution, it demands that Armenian forces evacuate seven Azeri regions and Karabagh itself and return the territories to Azeri jurisdiction. Most probably, Turkey will serve as a mediator with the Islamic conference countries, just as it happened last time. Although the document is not binding, it gives to Azerbaijan the advantage in terms of a propoganda tool. The vote also indicates how isolated Armenia is in its world diplomacy, while a new international document will favor Baku.
During the last vote on the resolution, our “brotherly” Christian Georgia voted in Azerbaijan’s favor. The same thing might happen this time around with impunity, because the Georgians are convinced that Armenia cannot retaliate in kind.
Another Christian nation, Ukraine, had also supported Azerbaijan under President Viktor Yushenko’s direction, but this time around we should expect more balanced behavior from Ukraine, since President Viktor Yanukovich is not reckless unlike his predecessor.
In the meantime, some symbolic actions in the region are intensifying the psychological warfare. One such action was President Ilham Aliyev’s ambitious project to fly the world’s largest flag over Baku. After spending 20 million euros, the flag, which was intended for the Guinness Book of Records, was torn apart by the gusting winds at the official ceremony, and the media observers believe that it became a candidate for the Guinness Book as the shortest existing flag in the world.