WHAT IS BEHIND THE SCENE?

The "helicopter Incident" that took place on the front line in Agdam District of Azerbaijan on 12 November continues to be in the spotlight in both Baku and Yerevan, while outside of Armenia and Azerbaijan the interest in the downed MI-24 of Armenian air force is clearly on the wane. International organizations, especially the OSCE and the co-chair countries of the Minsk Group, speaking in the wake of the incident and calling for restraint and for the conflict to be resolved through negotiations as soon as possible, considered their mission accomplished.

The incident occurred during the Unity 2014 military exercise, widely publicized by the Armenian media, in occupied Karabakh, which involved the use of armoured vehicles, artillery, etc. The flight of the Armenian "rotorcraft" over the front line and its military manouevres in the direction of Azerbaijani positions are more like a calculated "game of provocation", or to be more precise, an attempt to test the response of the Azerbaijani side to such air hooliganism. But, apparently, Yerevan did not expect such a harsh response.

There is one more significant thing. The "reserved" and unaddressed statements of international organizations led to understandable questions in the Azerbaijani audience: How long will the world community demonstrate an "equal attitude" to the aggressor and the victim of aggression, especially as nobody has ever been able to resolve a conflict without understanding its essence?

However, these "reserved" statements of international organizations seem to have seriously disappointed Yerevan. Firstly, in the first years of the conflict they became accustomed to a monopoly on the sympathies of public opinion and absolutely did not expect the attitude of the world community to the parties to the conflict to change. Secondly, Armenia tried its best to shift responsibility for the "helicopter incident" on Azerbaijan. Third, until recently, in conflicts such as the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict there was an unwritten rule: the party, which is affected by another outbreak of hostilities, could count on the sympathy of the world community. The list is endless, but the first few days after the incident showed that despite the fact that Armenia lost a helicopter, Yerevan failed to ignite anti-Azerbaijani hysteria. In any case, in an interview with reporters the deputy speaker of parliament, Eduard Sharmazanov, very emotionally expressed resentment against the OSCE Minsk Group and other international organizations, saying that "silence is tantamount to a crime".

Against this background, many experts believe, another round of the "diplomacy of denunciations" by the Armenian Foreign Ministry was quite expected. And not just because contrary to logic Yerevan is still not losing hope to provoke a "diplomatic attack" on Azerbaijan. In this case, the Armenian Foreign Ministry encountered an unexpected "PR effect" from the "special operation to evacuate the dead bodies", which was widely publicized by Yerevan. We should add: given the fact that the appeals and requests for the handover of the remains were sent to international bodies on behalf of Nagornyy Karabakh separatists, who, of course, are not recognized by anybody in the world, even by the Armenian authorities, Yerevan hardly hoped for a diplomatic way and staged a provocative show from the very beginning.

Azerbaijan said right at the start that in reality there was no special operation and that the bodies of Armenian soldiers killed earlier in other circumstances would be presented as the remains of the Mi-24 pilots. The footage released by the Armenian Defence Ministry was clearly identified as a fake. A lot of things caused suspicion. The body of one of the pilots demonstrated in the video, according to the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry, simply could not have remained in the state demonstrated in the video after the fall of the burning 11-tonne helicopter from a low altitude. The perfectly preserved parachute sewn from inflammable materials caused even greater suspicion. Moreover, in the three or four seconds, in which the helicopter fell to the ground, the pilots did not even have a theoretical chance to use this parachute. So it was concluded: "The photo and video materials released by the Armenian side have no relation to the destroyed military helicopter." The lavish funeral of the helicopter crew did not convince anyone either.

But in Armenia accusations were made once again against the country's Foreign Ministry in connection with its passive policy on the "helicopter incident". Their quintessence was expressed by the former foreign minister, MP Aleksandr Arzumanyan, who said the actions of the Defence Ministry were, as always, impeccable, while there were some failures in the activities of the Foreign Ministry. However, he immediately made a reservation that this time the Foreign Ministry did better than in August, however his statement played the role of a "trigger": the Armenian foreign minister was reminded of all his sins beginning from business class tickets to pro-Russian foreign policy. The Yerevan newspaper Lragir said that "in the recent period, foreign ambassadors prefer to contact the Defence Ministry on important issues rather than the Armenian Foreign Ministry". Zhoghovurd newspaper says: "The thing is that we must also find out whether Armenia has a Foreign Ministry in the truest sense of the word, because a Foreign Ministry can only exist in a sovereign country, and it is created in order to protect the sovereignty and national interests of a country in the international arena. Armenia does not have a sovereign foreign policy and a foreign policy doctrine."

At the same time, the Armenian Foreign Ministry continues to make new accusations against Azerbaijan. Specifically, in a speech to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Eduard Nalbandyan said: "The more oil and gas revenues come into the budget of Azerbaijan, the more weapons Baku buys. Over the past decade, the military spending of Azerbaijan has risen from 136m dollars to 3.6bn dollars, increasing more than 25 times by 2014. And Baku now boasts that next year it is going to increase its military budget by 27 per cent, bringing it to 4.8bn dollars. Disproportionate military spending and arms purchases by Azerbaijan pose a serious threat to regional and international stability and security."

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry responded immediately. Armenia's political regime, which has lost the trust of its own population because of the failure of its foreign and domestic policy and is perceived in the international arena as frivolous and unreliable, is trying to justify itself by lies and slander through Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandyan," the acting head of the press service of the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan, Hikmat Haciyev, said in a statement. "The biggest threat to peace and security in the region is the occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia and the militaristic policies pursued by the military dictatorship of Armenia. This country, which has carried out an aggressive policy and ethnic cleansing against another state, crimes against humanity, including the Xocali tragedy, as well as terror at the state level, has no moral right to talk about peace and call itself a civilized country. On the basis of the UN resolutions and rules and principles of international law, Armenia is responsible for the occupation of the territories of Azerbaijan," the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said. Nalbandyan, who was once again engaged in military rhetoric, forgot about the appeal of the Armenian president to young people calling on them for a future war with neighbouring countries and his statement to PACE about the occupation of another 20 per cent of Azerbaijani territory and the use of ballistic missiles against civilian targets in our country, Baku underlines. "Armenia's military dictatorship regime, which carried out the Xocali tragedy, does not miss an opportunity to commit crimes. But, knowing its weakness before the determination of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan, the criminal regime limits itself only to lies and slander. The theatrical re-enactment of the "special operation" is further proof of the helplessness of Armenia and its attempts to regain lost trust before the public. Against the background of the deepening disaster, Armenia should realize its responsibility, give up the lies and self-deception and take real steps to resolve the conflict," the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan said in a statement. However, recent events show that Armenia is simply not ready for constructive steps.