By Ivan Gharibyan

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who has not so far been able to “stomach” the progress in the Armenia-Turkey normalization process, has decided to resort to an open policy of blackmailing the international community. This time he took advantage of the commissioning ceremony of a residential community for refugees. During the ceremony, besides the traditional militant threats, Aliyev brought grave charges against the World Powers and international mediators, which smacked of blackmail.

The most interesting thing is that the topic of human rights violations – Azerbaijani refugees – served as a" starting point" for the Azeri leader’s tirade. As expected, the Azerbaijani President means only his “fellow tribesmen” by the people whose rights were violated, without making a single mention of the 400,000 Armenians that had to leave their homes.

Any statements on human rights made by Mr. Aliyev can be perceived as painfully absurd: statements on violations of human rights have been made by the President of a state where all the outstanding opposition and independent journalists are jailed; the Opposition cannot even dream of holding a small-scale action of protest in Baku; TV news programs are mere reports on the activities of the President and the First Lady, dressed with anti-Armenian propaganda carried to the point of idiocy. And now Mr. Aliyev has decided to “peach at” the West about human right. I like his cheek! No wonder, though. Europe, “intoxicated” with Azerbaijani oil, which is running short, has for many years turned a blind eye to the personality cult of the “national leader Heydar Aliyev”, persecution of the Opposition members, journalists, tragicomic election campaigns – all that a CE member-state. Europe has now got what was coming to it!

There are serious reasons why the Azeri leader resorted to an open policy of blackmailing the international community. It was a step of despair at the Armenia-Turkey normalization process under the umbrella of the key geopolitical players. Yesterday Aliyev himself “betrayed” the reasons for his behavior. For the first time he has admitted Azerbaijan has only to rely on itself. That statement was followed by the old song about the corrupted Azerbaijani army’s “great power.”

Nonetheless, whatever step of despair may be the Azeri leader’s latest statements – which are actually the result of the country’s deepening international isolation — they can by no means be ignored. Official Baku’s military threats must be considered, all the more so because the Azerbaijani authorities went completely mad after realizing the impossibility of re-establishing their control of Nagorno-Karabakh, and one can expect anything from them. It is food for thought for the international community, which has until now been indifferent to the existence of an aggressive authoritarian regime in Azerbaijan.