(MENAFN- AzerNews)
Qabil Ashirov read more One day, no one would have thought that an artifact in Greek
mythology of 700 BC could be repeated in the historical territory
of Azerbaijan, Kapan region. It was like the calamity that descends
on people when Pandora opened the box, being unaware of the curses,
diseases and troubles inside.
Thirty years ago, when furious Armenians armed with cold weapons
expelled over 10,000 civilian Azerbaijanis from Kapan, it came into
nobody's mind that, this was the foretoken of the bloody Karabakh
war that would continue for dozens of years.
Kapan, located in the valley of the Okhchuchay in the southeast
of modern Armenia, between Nakhchivan and main-land Azerbaijan had
been the homeland of Azerbaijanis living here for thousands of
years before Armenians were placed in the region by the Russian
Empire. Armenians were able to grab this historic Azerbaijani land,
like Goyche, Irevan, and so on when they created modern Armenia. At
the end of the last century, Armenian effrontery grew further and
they eyed on another Azerbaijani territory - Karabakh.
Fearing that Karabakh could be a precedent for Azerbaijanis in
Kapan, i.e. Azerbaijanis could ask for self-determination in the
region, first-up Armenians drove out innocent Azerbaijanis.
Following the Kapan deportation, compactly-settled Armenian
minorities in Karabakh made protests and demanded
self-determination that evolved into a full-scale war.
Unfortunately, the bloody Karabakh War overshadowed and lived down
the Kapan deportation. However, after the de-occupation of
Azerbaijani land in the 44-day war, Kapan was brought back to the
agenda once again. Iran opened its Consulate General in Kapan
despite the fact that there are no Iranian citizens living in the
city. Russia followed Iran and announced that it intends to open
Consulate General. Reading Armenian mass media, some could think
that Iran and Russia are not the last countries to open Consulate
General. Why this tiny and poor city is so important? What new
'diseases' will bring the Pandora's Box of Caucasus to the
region?
Commenting on the issue in an interview with Azernews, political
analyst, Professor at Western Caspian University Fikret Sadigov
noted that the question is not whether Kapan is strategically
important, but the matter is the proxy of the city to the
border.
“It is not a big city. Kapan enables many to observe processes -
the events taking place at the border, and receive operational
information about the events. At the same time, it is known that if
a state representative office is opened there, certain people will
work there, as well. They are far from diplomacy, but close to
intelligence their main goal and task are to collect information.
That is, to analyze the situation at the border and to inform their
home countries. I think Kapan is so important just because of this
issue,” Fikret Sadigov opined.
Responding to the question of whether the purpose is to expand
the spheres of activity of Iranian and Russian intelligence, the
professor pointed out that economic and humanitarian issues will be
promptly resolved at a closer diplomatic level and simultaneously,
intelligence agencies will strengthen their activities.
“Each country has its own duties. There can also be general
tasks here. If a certain country is watching military actions
there, another state may be interested, for example, in the events
taking place on the border, the [Azerbaijani] military potential,
and so on. That is, these countries want to study the situation on
the spot through those diplomatic missions, and this is their main
goal,” he said.
The professor said states are more interested when they open
consulates. He ensured that these countries also received the
consent of Armenia.
“They would not have opened these consulates if Armenia had not
agreed. That is, perhaps these countries that collect data also
share it with Armenia. We can draw such a conclusion that both
Armenia and the states that opened consulates are satisfied,” he
said.
He added that other countries can follow Iran and Russia.
“As is known, Iran opened its consulate in Kapan, and Russia
will open soon. I will not be surprised if France opens a consulate
there too. Some French cities are twinned with Armenian cities.
There are such facts,” he concluded.
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Qabil Ashirov is AzerNews' staff journalist, follow him on
Twitter: @g_ashirov