Yerevan and Baku analysts dispute about escalation reasons in Nagorno-Karabakh

The aggravation of the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh has to do with Armenia's and Azerbaijan's desire to evade negotiations on the status of the unrecognized republic, Andrias Gukasyan believes. The aggravation of the situation was also affected by international processes, in particular, the hostilities in Ukraine, Naira Airumyan has noted.

The escalation in Nagorno-Karabakh has to do with the visit of the Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, to France, Andrias Gukasyan, a political analyst, believes. In his opinion, the destabilization of the situation is necessary so that both Armenia and Azerbaijan refer to the threat of war resumption and evade negotiations on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh.

He doubts that Baku plans to restart the war in Karabakh. Azerbaijan is not in a position to push forward its aggressive policy, Mr Gukasyan has added.

Naira Airumyan, a political observer, has noted that the escalation in Nagorno-Karabakh is taking place amid the important international processes – the Russia's special operation in Ukraine and the Vienna talks on the Iranian nuclear programme.

At the same time, Ms Airumyan did not rule out the resumption of a large-scale war in Karabakh.

Azerbaijan aims to discredit Russian peacemakers, Armen Vardanyan, a political analyst, believes.

Shakhin Gadjiev, the editor of the "Turan" News Agency, believes that the Karabakh topic has disappeared from the international agenda and doubted that Russian militaries would take the Armenian side.

Togrul Djuvarly, a member of the Azerbaijan National Public Committee for European Integration (ANPCEI), also believes that in the event of a special operation undertaken by Azerbaijan, Russia will remain neutral.