Using the Åland example for Artsakh is ludicrous

In the wake of its aggression against Artsakh and its victory against Armenians therein, Azerbaijan is more than ever engaged in attempts to justify its actual occupation of large territorial fractions of this country and an alleged sovereignty over it and its Armenian inhabitants. To say it otherwise, Ilham Aliyev duly endorses the famous apocryphal statement assigned to Bismarck according to which “Macht geht über Recht.”

This situation is facilitated by the great political weakness of Armenia, which so far is the main ally of the Republic of Artsakh. Such a weakness of course results from the military defeat, which weakens the current Armenian government, now strongly contested by a reinvigorated opposition supported by broad, if not dominant, segments of the population. Indeed, the defeat again made Artsakh the key contentious issue on Armenia’s political scene. This evolution is certainly logical, as the loss of Artsakh is rightfully perceived as an existential threat for Armenia itself. As a matter of confirmation, Azerbaijani troops started encroaching on strategic heights of Syunik, Armenia’s southern province, while the regime of Baku makes regular claims, not only over this region but also over Lake Sevan and Yerevan itself, i.e., over three quarters of the tiny Armenian territory. The current political conditions are so critical that Armenia is unable to guarantee the security of Artsakh, hardly its own security and that Russia, through its peacekeepers, is now the only guarantor of the security of the Republic of Artsakh.