By Edmond Y. Azadian
Armenia’s current domestic crisis could not have come at a worse time, when the country is still licking its wounds after the four-day war in early April.
Azerbaijan has been emboldened by its success during the latest flare-up, which was condoned by Russia and encouraged by Turkey.
Meanwhile, Turkey is more and more acting like a superpower rather than a regional one, flexing its political and military muscles way beyond the Middle East, over the Balkans and Central Asia. It has already established military bases in Qatar, Somalia, Georgia and most recently, in Azerbaijan, near Sumgait, despite official denials. This is where President Ilham Aliyev’s intransigence stems from at the negotiation table.
Many plans to resolve the Karabagh conflict have been promoted but then have crumbled. One thing is clear: time is not on Armenia’s side. That is why pressure is building on Yerevan from the international community to compromise at the cost of impossible concessions.
At this point, the Kazan plan has been revived, whose terms postpone the referendum on Karabagh’s status to the last stage, while requiring territorial concessions first.