Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev took advantage of his official visit to Uzbekistan for expressing his really idiotic ideas of the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process. It was a really suitable occasion for the Azeri leader, as hardly anyone, except for the aged Uzbek leader, President Islam Karimov, could have played up to him.

Both at his private meeting with his Azeri counterpart and at their joint news conference in Tashkent President Islam Karimov stressed Uzbekistan’s position on Nagorno-Karabakh “has remained unchanged.” Specifically, official Tashkent is for a peaceful settlement of the conflict, “but one principle, namely, the inviolability of borders and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, must be strictly observed.” Moreover, Islam Karimov, who ordered about 500 women and children to be shot dead in Andijan, has so far been unable to understand why many states throughout the world will not accept “Azerbaijan’s clear and perfectly sober terms on Nagorno-Karabakh.”

The “Habarlar” news program of the government-controlled Aztv channel reports that President Ilham Aliev thanked his Uzbek counterpart for his “principle-based position” on the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process. “We respect the neighboring states’ borders and expect the same from Armenia, which has been violating international legal norms for many years. Uzbekistan’s voting at international agencies inspires hope, we will get Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity restored by diplomatic means,” Aliev said.

The “principle-based” position by one of the political outcasts must have once again excited the Azeri leader’s fevered imagination so much that he made a number of statements that may even thwart the peace talks with official Yerevan  - or, in any case, make the Armenian authorities think of the need to break off the talks. “One time the Armenian people declared self-determination in the historical Azerbaijani lands (the formation of Soviet Armenia in November 1920, with independent Armenia within its borders declared in 1991.). And the creation of a second Armenian state, within the historical borders of Azerbaijan again, is unacceptable. We are expecting Armenia to show a constructive approach, as no one benefits from the protracting conflict,” the Azeri leader said.

No reasonable person can understand what “constructive approach” Mr. Aliev is expecting from Armenia after making such statements – just as Mr. Aliev, who is far from being a reasonable person, cannot understand at all that he himself is ruining any prospects of Armenian society’s consent to certain territorial concessions in exchange for Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence. Why, and for what purpose, it is being done – Mr. Aliev alone must understand it. By the way, serious splits have occurred within his once monolithic party just on the threshold of parliamentary elections. Mr. Aliev’s aim may be to unite the ranks of Yeni Azerbaijan round the rosy dream of retuning “historical Azerbaijani lands.” However, little Ilham, the son of the “national leader” Heydar Aliev should come to realize at last he can finally get into trouble.

As to his “fellow” Islam Karimov, before failing to understand the reason why many states will not accept official Baku’s position on Nagorno-Karabakh, he better recall not only the Uzbek pogroms in Kyrgyzstan this year, but also the Armenian pogroms in Sumgait, Kirovabad, Baku, as well as in many other towns of Azerbaijan, in 1988-1990. May be, after considering the fact that the Kyrgyz authorities themselves fiercely condemned the Uzbek pogroms, whereas Azerbaijan is praising the thugs as “heroic sons and daughters of our people,” the aged Uzbek dictator will begin to understand something about the causes of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.