Concessions to Azerbaijan will not stop its demands, and the Armenian authorities are sacrificing security for illusions.
A professor of international relations at Lehigh University, Arman Grigoryan, believes that changing the Armenian constitution will neither satisfy Azerbaijan nor prevent Baku from making new demands. He stated this in an interview with the program "Khorm Khaz".
In his opinion, the Armenian authorities are using the chance of official peace with Azerbaijan to justify changing the course of the country's foreign policy and abandoning the previous security system.
Answering a question about Azerbaijan's ongoing demands to change the Armenian constitution, as well as about possible early elections and a constitutional referendum, Grigoryan made a parallel to the policy of appeasement, which is widely discussed in the Western political science literature.
"If a country with aggressive feelings and revisionist intentions makes concessions in the hope that they will satisfy its appetites and it will accept the status quo, this is considered a very short-sighted policy. Concessions to a country that has aggressive intentions and motives only whet its appetite," the professor explained.
In his opinion, this approach also applies to the situation around Armenia. Grigorian believes that the hope that after changing the constitution and recognizing the existing status quo Azerbaijan will stop raising demands is mistaken.
At the same time, the expert emphasized, this is not just a theoretical model: the representatives of the Azerbaijani leadership themselves openly state that the peace agreement does not exhaust their claims towards Armenia.
As an example, he cited a statement by Azerbaijan's foreign minister, Jihon Bayramov, made a day after the early signing of the peace agreement. According to Grigoryan, Bayermov then stated that the document did not exhaust Baku's expectations and demands regarding Yerevan.