AZE.US
Attempts to revive the Karabakh issue as the central political question in the South Caucasus no longer reflect the reality on the ground, Azerbaijani political analyst Ilgar Velizade said in comments aired by the Echo Baku YouTube channel.
Velizade argued that Azerbaijan has already moved beyond the old conflict agenda after restoring full sovereignty over Karabakh. In his view, the region has entered a different political stage, where the main questions are no longer about the status of Karabakh but about borders, transport links, a peace agreement and the wider balance of power around the South Caucasus.
For Baku, that shift is fundamental. Azerbaijan sees the Karabakh chapter as closed and is now focused on converting the outcome of the post-2020 period into a new regional order. That includes the delimitation of the border with Armenia, the opening of communications and the removal of external mechanisms that were built around the old conflict.
Velizade’s point is that some outside players and political circles still try to speak in the language of the previous era. They continue to frame Karabakh as an unresolved issue, even though the facts on the ground have changed. For Azerbaijan, this is not just a semantic disagreement. It is an attempt to keep the region tied to a conflict model that Baku believes no longer exists.
The analyst suggested that the real struggle now is not over Karabakh itself, but over the interpretation of what happened after 2020 and especially after 2023. In that sense, the debate has moved from military and territorial questions to political narratives, diplomatic pressure and the future format of regional security.
This is where Azerbaijan’s position has hardened. Baku is no longer prepared to negotiate within old formulas that treated Karabakh as a separate track. The country’s leadership has repeatedly said that the rights and security of ethnic Armenians can only be discussed within Azerbaijan’s constitutional framework, not through any external status mechanism.
Velizade’s assessment reflects a broader mood in Baku: the old Karabakh agenda cannot simply be restored because the political map that sustained it has disappeared. Armenia is now being pushed to make choices about peace, borders and regional integration, while outside actors are trying to preserve influence through familiar diplomatic language.
For Azerbaijan, the message is blunt. The conflict-centered phase is over. The new battlefield is political, economic and diplomatic – and Baku believes it is already playing there from a stronger position.
AZE.US