13/02/2014 17:14
Expert blog: ‘Olympic truce’ as reason for propaganda boom
The head of the political and social unit of Azerbaijani presidential staff Ali Hasanov declared that the Armenian side has violated the earlier agreement to honor the ‘Olympic truce’ during the Winter Olympics in Sochi, which means that Armenia is not interested in a constructive dialog, according to Hasanov.
Armenian Defense Ministry also released a statement related to the ‘Olympic truce’, which says in particular that “in defiance of numerous calls of the international community and the OSCE Minsk Group to observe the ceasefire during the Winter Olympics, the Azerbaijani armed forces continue to fire at Armenian frontline positions and settlements. These actions give reason to believe that actions of Azerbaijani military units are either not controlled by the commanders or are aimed at destabilizing the situation on the border through provocations”.
Following the ‘Olympic truce’ reached by the sides during the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs’ latest regional trip, there has been no change in ceasefire violation cases at the border, with Azerbaijan continuing to display varying activity and using large-caliber machine guns and sniper rifles.
Moreover, information was received that two days ago the Azerbaijani side opened fire at a tractor working in a field in the Hadrut direction of the Line of Contact between the Karabakh and Azerbaijani troops. In this connection the spokesman for Defense Ministry of the NKR Senor Hasratian said that “in the eastern section of the Line of Contact we have an enemy who is indiscriminate when choosing a target”.
The ‘Olympic truce’ agreement has spurred Azerbaijani officials to even greater activity.
Even officials who never spoke about the ceasefire observation or did so very seldom have begun making comments, including on social media. The head of the Azerbaijani president’s foreign affairs unit Novruz Mamedov was noted for his activity on Twitter.
It is noteworthy that those Azerbaijani officials, who over the past week spoke about the implementation of the ‘Olympic truce’ agreements on a daily basis, prior to that had completely ‘forgot’ about the 1994 ceasefire agreement, under which the ceasefire shall be observed not only during the Olympics.
Obviously, the ‘Olympic truce’ has become an occasion for Azerbaijan to give impetus to its propaganda, rather than to promote a temporary lull on the border and try to calm passions.