YEREVAN, MAY 23, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijan, which has accumulated lots of problems in its Armed Forces, cannot launch war at this moment, as much as it wanted to, political scientist Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan told a press conference on May 23.

According to him, the arrest of Azerbaijani servicemen – who were accused in transferring confidential information to the Armenian military – which widely resonated among the Azerbaijani society, speaks about the current morale of the country’s Armed Forces.

“We received information that the serviceman are being killed under unknown circumstances by law enforcement agencies, and are buried in closed coffins without an explanation as to why they’ve been killed. By following the Azerbaijani media, we see that two these circulate in terms of why these servicemen were arrested. Moreover, this can have direct impact on the conflict settlement. The first one is that perhaps a competition is underway between the Azerbaijani defense minister and the chief of the general staff, and they are trying to neutralize one another’s men this way.

An armed uprising was also mentioned, and perhaps this was the very thing which was revealed and prevented in this way. The second option is about the failure of the incursion attempts in January-February. There was an order to create something similar to the April events, perhaps this was vengeance for failing or disobeying this order. There are serious problems in Azerbaijan, dozens of officers have been arrested, which speaks about the domestic situation, their training, which in its turn gives reason to think that with this kind of Armed Forces, Azerbaijan, with so many problems, cannot launch war at this moment, regardless of how much it were to desire it”, he said.

In Melik-Shahnazaryan’s opinion, the latest statement of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, which mentioned that Azerbaijan attacked on May 15, isn’t the first addressed statement, and it shouldn’t be treated as a sensational achievement.

“It seems as if the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs emphasized that it was Azerbaijan, however the calls were once again addressed to both sides – to be more balanced, and not allow escalation. This isn’t the first time, as it was mentioned by the press. Lets recall the 2015 Krakow meeting, after which Azerbaijan was urged to be consistent with its commitments. I believe it will be beneficial to put these statements next to each other and accept them as a pattern. Similar emphases were made before, and this speaks about the fact that the Minsk Group is to some extent revising its stance. We must simply encourage for it to have a consistent development”, he said, adding that although such calls don’t solve any problem, nevertheless it must be achieved that the Minsk Group Co-Chairs use their entire power on Azerbaijan in order to make it abandon its belligerent policy and actually seek solution through a peaceful path.