Ilham Aliev is bluffing, says Turkish expert Behlul Ozkan

Military statements and threats of war made and voiced by Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliev are just a bluff, said in his interview with Armenian television channel Kentron the expert and lecturer at Istanbul’s Bogazici University, political analyst and foreign policy specialist Behlul Ozkan, who traveled to Armenia.

He expressed confidence that Ilham Aliev in fact doesn’t want to settle the Karabakh conflict and the more doesn’t want to settle it through war.

“I think that Aliev doesn’t seek for a settlement to the Karabakh conflict, as the today’s situation, the status-quo, is profitable to Aliev. He is sitting on the oil at multibillion values, and the oil pipelines were built as the large oil companies were guaranteed by Aliev that the war wouldn’t begin. Everyone knows that today these oil pipelines are passing at a 30-40 km distance from Armenia, and if the war starts, then Armenia can attack the pipelines,” said Turkish expert.

“There is no single risk that Aliev will go in war; he is just playing a game with own people,” said Behlul Ozkan.

He accused Azerbaijan of non-democracy: “In non-democratic countries the best way to control people is every year promise to bring back the lost territories.”

Referring to the issue of Armenia-Turkey border and relations between the two countries, Behlul Ozkan said: “There are powerful pro-Azerbaijani lobbyists in Turkey, there are very large oil and chemical companies which can put the screws on the government. Under circumstances of such hysteria by Azerbaijan, Turkey can’t open its borders.”