Strength for Peace: Azerbaijan Forms Its Own Logic of Regional Game

Azerbaijan in the past year not only maintained its stability but also began to form its own logic of regional play. Why sovereignty has become a system, not a slogan, and which decisions will be decisive in 2026 - this is discussed in the Caspian newspaper's conversation with the chairman of the Turkish-Azerbaijani Friendship, Cooperation and Solidarity Foundation, political commentator, Professor Aygun Attar.

- Can we say that Baku has already developed its own "immunity to chaos," and which elements of this model will be important in the coming year?

- Against the backdrop of global turbulence, 2025 became a year of confirmed stability for Azerbaijan. In a situation where familiar international rules are eroding and chaos increasingly becomes the norm, Baku demonstrated a rare quality - the ability to maintain internal balance and strategic clarity. This allows us to speak today not just about stability, but about a developed immunity to external shocks. And it did not emerge spontaneously. It grew from the union of society and state, from a sober understanding that the world no longer guarantees security to the weak, and from pragmatic politics in which sovereignty is not merely declared but daily defended.

A strong army, economic independence, calibrated multi-vector diplomacy, and rejection of foreign scenarios have made Azerbaijan a rare example of manageability in an unmanageable world. In the new year, maintaining this logic will be critically important - internal consolidation as the basis of stability, readiness for peace without complacency, protection of economic and energy autonomy, and most importantly - the ability to make decisions based on one's own national interests, not external expectations. In a world where chaos has become a systemic factor, Azerbaijan has chosen the role of subject, not object. And this is its strategic advantage.

- The victory of 2020 has been finally secured both politically and diplomatically. How do you assess the transition from the "era of sovereignty restoration" to the stage of its institutionalization - is the region ready for this new reality?

- The transition has already taken place. The victory of 2020 has been both recorded and made irreversible through international recognition, dismantling of the Karabakh dossier, liquidation of the Minsk Group, and initialing of the peace treaty. This is the institutionalization of sovereignty, when the issue of territorial integrity ceases to be a subject of dispute and becomes the norm of political reality. The region is forced to be ready for this new reality. Azerbaijan already lives in the logic of peace, rules, and infrastructure of the future - from the "Great Return" to trans-regional corridors. For neighbors, this is not a question of choice, but of adaptation: either integrate into the post-conflict order or remain on the sidelines of history.

- The Minsk Group has gone to the archives of history, and the format of bilateral negotiations between Azerbaijan and Armenia is already becoming the norm. How much does this change the rules of the game in the South Caucasus, and who today is not ready for such "direct diplomacy"?

- This changes the rules of the game radically. The departure of the Minsk Group means the dismantling of external arbitration and the final closing of the "