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Author, Anna Mkrtchyan

Yesterday Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev visited Brussels and held high-level meetings with the leadership of the European Union. It seemed that every condition was created for thawing EU-Azerbaijan relations which was allegedly observed recently. However, lo and behold, the dictator was offended and decided to ‘punish’ the head of the European Parliament by cancelling the meeting with him at the last moment. The reason was that President-elect of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani was to take part in an event which was also attended by two opposition activists of Azerbaijan Emin Milli and Khadija Ismayilova.

Moreover, as in all the similar cases, the Azerbaijani media reported that the event was ‘sponsored’ by the pro-Armenian parliamentarians.

Anyways, such tricks of the Absheron dictator reaching to infantile authoritarianism are not unique and claim to become one of the important elements of his behavior in interaction with the outside world. Violating all kinds of legal and moral norms, overriding the international norms, demonstrating spontaneous and pseudo-manly behavior which in some cases is out of logic are characteristic to junior Aliyev, as well as to the other dictators.

Energized by the oil smell the Azeri President does not hesitate to act against the international community imposing, to put it mildly, “his own way”. 

One of the recent examples is the Azerbaijani attempt to block the budget of the OSCE Yerevan Office. Ignoring the unanimous calls of the 56 states it continues acting like a sulky child. Another instance is the Eastern Partnership Summit held on 22 May 2015 which was not attended by sulky Aliyev and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Mammadyarov simply left the summit hall failing to gain the expected results. The most obvious example can be considered the extradition and glorification of killer Safarov. And Aliyev’s activities regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh talks would certainly prepare a solid ground for the individuals engaged in psychological s analysis of the typology of the authoritarian persons.

Rejecting the agreements at the last moment, torpedoing the concerted actions, repeating maximalist claims in no way contribute to the formation of the image of a reliable and mature politician.

Such a behavior of the Azerbaijani leader is not surprising as much as the limit of its tolerance by the international society. A short episode of Aliyev’s visit to Brussels shows that the real attitude of the European leaders towards the capricious oil owner.

After the meeting with the reporters Head of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker wished them a nice day adding the following: “I will now see the president of Azerbaijan, so the nice part of the day is over.”

If the head of the European Commission is so saddened for having to hold one-hour communication with Aliyev, what can we, Armenians, say when every day we deal with the dictator who considers Yerevan as historical Azerbaijani territory and Panama as a treasury of his own state.

We will not be surprised if one day we wake up to find out that Aliyev has ordered to punish the Caspian Sea by whipping it, let’s say for the recent tragedies occurred in the oil industry sphere. And why not?

Azerbaijan likes taking the history of the countries of the region. And in this case we have the example of the Persian king Xerxes who, after initiating a failed invasion to Greece in the 5th century B.C., ordered to punish Hellespont_ the Dardanelles Strait, in the same manner.