THE SHUSHA ALLIANCE

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan became the first world leader to visit Garabagh after its liberation from the Armenian occupation. Just before the visit, Erdogan announced the signing of a comprehensive document on cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkey. This document was the Shusha Declaration on Allied Relations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Turkey".

Certainly, Azerbaijan and Turkey have always maintained allied relations. Cooperation between the two states is based on an impressive legal framework, including about 300 bilateral agreements. As of today, Turkish companies have invested $13 billion in the Azerbaijani economy, while Azerbaijani investments in the Turkish economy reached $19 billion. The list of positive results of mutually beneficial cooperation can be extended.

The signing of the Shusha Declaration illustrates the new geopolitical realities announced by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev immediately after the liberation of Armenia-occupied lands.

“The Declaration reflects many important issues, including joint cooperation, our activities on the international plane, political, commercial and economic relations, culture, education, sports, youth policy, that is, all spheres are covered. It also shows the significance of energy security, the Southern Gas Corridor for Turkey, Azerbaijan and Europe. Each issue is of great importance. I would like to highlight just two of them. First, cooperation in the defense sphere. The Shusha Declaration reflects issues related to defense industry and mutual military assistance. This is a historic achievement. We demonstrate once again that we will always be together in the future.

“The second important issue is related to transportation. The document reflects very clearly the opening of the Zangezur Corridor. This is a result of the new geopolitical situation that emerged after the Second Garabagh War. Today it is not only about the Zangezur Corridor, which will connect Turkey and Azerbaijan by rail and road. We also create the corridor through practical actions. This issue was reflected in the signed joint declaration, which is of great importance,” Ilham Aliyev said in his statement to the media after the signing of the Shusha Declaration.

It is symbolic that the declaration contains a reference to the Kars Treaty signed exactly 100 years ago. As Mr. Aliyev noted, the signing of the document in Shusha indicates the direction of further cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkey.

According to the Kars Treaty signed in 1921, Turkey and Russia acted as guarantors of the security of the autonomous region of Nakhchivan (Azerbaijan). The Shusha Declaration should be considered in the same context, albeit it guarantees the security of all the liberated lands of Azerbaijan.

Turkey also intends to open a consulate in Shusha. The ultimate goal of all joint steps of Azerbaijan and Turkey is to create a set of stabilising factors that would contribute to the strengthening of peace and cooperation in the region.

“We want Armenia to accept the hand of solidarity that we extended to it with good intentions, to prudently use the opportunity to jointly form a common future. I mean the platform of six states, including Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and Iran. As part of this platform, we want to establish peace in the region. To make this come true, my brother and I are ready for any dedication. Mr. Putin is equally ready for this dedication. Thanks to our joint steps, the region will turn into a region of peace,” President Erdogan said.

The only condition that Azerbaijan and Turkey request Armenia to abide is the rejection of the policy of hatred and incitement. “If we have such an environment, we also say at every opportunity that we will do everything possible to normalize relations with Armenia. We believe that this encouraging process will continue in a very healthy form if the ceasefire agreement signed between Azerbaijan and Armenia ends with a comprehensive and far-sighted peace treaty,” Mr. Erdogan said.

However, Armenia, apparently, still needs time to recover from defeat, to eliminate the internal political chaos caused by the surrender and to realise the new realities after Azerbaijan liberated its lands. Unfortunately, there is no reason to hope that the situation will improve immediately after the early parliamentary elections in Armenia.

Meanwhile, we can only hear inadequate statements from Yerevan, such as "Armenian Foreign Ministry strongly condemns the joint visit by the presidents of Turkey and Azerbaijan to the Armenian cultural and historical centre of Artsakh, the city of Shushi, which is under Azerbaijani occupation." Strangely, Armenian authorities claim that the city of Shusha founded in 1752 by the Azerbaijani Khan Panahali, where 98% of the population has always consisted of Azerbaijanis, is "under the occupation of Azerbaijan"!

The remnants of the puppet separatist regime in Khankendi went even further. They called Erdogan's actions "an attempt to thwart Russia’s peacekeeping mission in the region, a diabolical plan aimed at striking a fragile stability." Separatists called on international organisations, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, in particular Russia, "to curb the aggressive aspirations of Turkey."

Of course, after the signing of the Shusha Declaration between Azerbaijan and Turkey, one could expect new horror stories from the Armenian side about the Turkish threat near the borders of Russia or about Ankara's damage to NATO's image. However, as the former Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Tofig Zulfugarov noted in his interview with RTVI, Erdogan arrived in Shusha immediately after the NATO summit, where Turkey received very serious support from the members of the alliance. “For example, we learned that Turkey has a special role in Afghanistan and in a number of other NATO zones of activity. Therefore, the receipt of such a security umbrella from one of the significant members of NATO definitely changes the situation in the region,” Mr. Zulfugarov said.

At the same time, he said that the conclusion of an alliance agreement between Azerbaijan and Turkey should not undermine relations between Russia and Turkey: “In the current situation, when Erdogan and Putin are able to agree on problematic issues, Russia's relations with other NATO members look completely different. Therefore, in this case and in this region, Russia prefers Turkey more than anyone else as a conductor of the Western policy and a partner in the development of regional security."

Thus, we have a situation when the Armenia and the rest of the world live in completely different realities. Armenia is led not by pragmatic interests, but by centuries-old myths about Armenia "from sea to sea", delusional ideas of the exclusivity of the Armenian nation. Therefore, Armenia is outside of all the regional processes going on in the region. Only a few politicians, such as the first President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan, try, albeit unsuccessfully, to sober up the intoxicated Armenian society. “Who will make Azerbaijan leave? The whole world considers Garabagh to be a part of Azerbaijan,” L. Ter-Petrosyan noted, adding that today Armenia does not have a decisive vote. But he warned Armenians back in 1997: “What we reject today, we will have to ask in the future, but we will not receive, as happened many times in our history.”...