Armenian expert says Azerbaijan's ‘peace’ remark masks hybrid pressure tactics

Iran specialist Vardan Voskanyan has accused Azerbaijan of using “peaceful-sounding” language as a form of hybrid political pressure after a top aide to President Ilham Aliyev said Baku was building peace not only with Armenia’s government but also with its people.

In a social media post on Saturday, Voskanyan said the comments made by Hikmet Hajiyev in an interview with The Washington Times was “dangerous propaganda” rather than a genuine peace overture.

“At first glance, this sentence appears ‘peace-loving’, but in reality it is a classic example of a disguised hybrid attack,” he wrote.

Hajiyev was quoted as saying: “We are making peace not only with the Armenian government, but also with the Armenian people.”

Voskanyan argued that the wording deliberately separates Armenia’s government from its population, implicitly questioning the government’s legitimacy to represent the country as a whole.

“The logic suggests that the Armenian government does not fully represent the people and that peace must therefore be built with two separate ‘subjects’,” he said.

He also said that direct appeals by senior Azerbaijani officials to the Armenian public amount to interference in Armenia’s internal affairs.

“When a senior official of a hostile state bypasses official state channels and speaks to the people from a ‘benevolent uncle’ position, this is blatant interference,” Voskanyan said, adding that this was the second such attempt by Hajiyev.

According to the expert, the statement also portrays peace as a one-sided process driven by Baku.

“Baku’s barbaric regime poses itself as the sole ‘good’ actor that decides with whom and how peace will be built,” he said.

Voskanyan stated that the remarks were aimed at undermining Armenia’s state institutions, encouraging internal divisions and portraying Azerbaijan internationally as both “peace loving” and the main party dictating peace.