Olympic Games 2016 To Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh To Armenia

Therefore; the plan should be Azerbaijan gets 2016 Olympic Games, Armenia gets Nagorno Karabakh, The world gets PEACE. This is a great deal.

Azerbaijan is likely to bid for holding the summer Olympic Games 2016 in Azerbaijan. The members of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation approve Azerbaijan’s intention except for Armenia. Azerbaijan’s likelihood may actually mean two things. First, Azerbaijan will not bring into being its threat to use force to return Karabakh until 2016 because in that case our neighbor, as well as we, but also our neighbor would be busy with planning military actions or planning reconstruction of the economy in 2016.

On the other hand, if Azerbaijan makes an Olympic bid for 2016, it perhaps thinks that the peace agreement on the settlement of the Karabakh issue will be signed by 2016 to set down de facto peace in the region in an agreement, without which it is pointless to expect that the members of the IOC will vote for holding the Olympic Games in Azerbaijan.

There is still a lot of time till 2016, and perhaps the prospect of signing an agreement is quite realistic. In addition, the Olympic Games may favor that, and also Armenia, strange though it may seem. What is the problem? Azerbaijan, which expects to host the summer Olympic Games, may even soften its stance on the Karabakh issue to sign a peace agreement and get a chance to organize the Olympic Games. After all, it is real money, and as long as the oil factor is “on horse”, Azerbaijan would like to make use of it. Ilham Aliyev will certainly compare the billions of dollars of the Olympic Games and the bugbear of Karabakh, and will certainly try to persuade his people that Azerbaijan can do without Karabakh but not without the Olympic Games. Meanwhile, it will be easy to persuade because the Olympic Games, like Sochi showed, is “opium of the people”. The expectations may infect the public with enthusiasm so that it will not want to hear anything about the problem of Karabakh but will gladly vote for prosecution of mentioning Karabakh because it hinders the economic development of the country.

In this sense, it is not clear why late last year the Armenian parliament voted against Azerbaijan’s initiative which was approved by the parliamentarians of the countries of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation in Georgia. It seemed that not everyone should have been for and Armenia against but the contrary because everyone may envy Azerbaijan, while we have no reason to envy since we took everything in 1992-1994. However, the thoughts of the Armenian parliamentarians are inexplicable, perhaps more than God’s ways. It is also evident that it is the approach of the Armenian government because the parliamentarians must have phoned Yerevan from Georgia, either to the speaker of the National Assembly who must have phoned the president, or directly the leader of the majority party to ask what to do if they have to spell out a stance on holding the Olympic Games in Azerbaijan. Perhaps there is no need to guess the answer because the Armenians parliamentarians who voted against holding the Olympic Games in Azerbaijan would hardly dare to oppose to the government of Armenia. Meanwhile, not only Armenia should have agreed but also could lend a hand to Azerbaijan.

For instance, the Armenian government could reach agreement with Aliyev: if he uses all his potential to lobby the independence of Karabakh in Azerbaijan and in the world, Armenia will use its potential to lobby Azerbaijan’s intention to host the Olympic Games.

No doubt, both Armenia and Azerbaijan will consider this option as absurd, if not high treason. Perhaps, however, this way of thinking is the reason why the two countries have achievements in “high treason” rather than state building. However, we should not forget about the co-chairs who may do something with their new shuttle. They ran out of imagination at some point, to the degree that they announced about it. However, it is not fatal. Simply it is everyone’s duty who wants to have the Karabakh conflict resolved and the state of Karabakh recognized, to help the co-chairs regain their imagination through new proposals and components.

HAKOB BADALYAN - Lragir.am