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European Leaders Voice ‘Unwavering Support’ For Armenia


Spain - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meet during an EU summit in Granada, October 5, 2023.
Spain - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meet during an EU summit in Granada, October 5, 2023.

The leaders of the European Union and its key member states, France and Germany, expressed strong support for Armenia’s territorial integrity and promised more aid to refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh when they met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Thursday.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was also due to attend the meeting held on the sidelines of a European Union summit in the Spanish city of Granada. But he withdrew at the last minute, citing pro-Armenian statements made by French leaders and the rejection of his demands that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan be allowed to join the talks.

A senior aide to Aliyev said on Thursday that he is ready to hold a trilateral meeting with Pashinian as well as European Council President Charles Michel in Brussels “soon.”

A joint statement issued after the Granada talks said Michel, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz “underlined their unwavering support to the independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of the borders of Armenia.”

“They also expressed their support to the strengthening of EU-Armenia relations, in all its dimensions, based on the needs of the Republic of Armenia. They agreed on the need to provide additional humanitarian assistance to Armenia as it faces the consequences of the recent mass displacement of Karabakh Armenians,” added the statement.

The EU allocated 5.2 million euros ($5.5 million) in humanitarian aid to the refugees shortly after the mass exodus of Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population resulting from Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 offensive. Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Commission, said earlier on Thursday that the EU’s executive body will double that sum in addition to giving the Armenian government 15 million euros in “direct budgetary support.” Von der Leyen held a separate meeting with Pashinian in Granada.

Spain - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Granada, October 5, 2023
Spain - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Granada, October 5, 2023

The Azerbaijani takeover of Karabakh raised more fears in Yerevan that Baku will also attack Armenia to open an exterritorial land corridor to Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave. Michel, Macron and Scholz appeared to allude to such a possibility in their joint statement with Pashinian. It called for the “strict adherence to the principle of non-use of force and threat of use of force.”

Pashinian indicated on Wednesday that he and Aliyev were very close to signing in Granada a “framework document” laying out the key parameters of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty and the delimitation of the long border between the two South Caucasus states. He said he still hopes that it will be signed “at an opportune time.”

Baku and Yerevan have disagreed, at least until now, on the mechanism for the border delimitation. The Armenian side has insisted on using 1975 Soviet military maps for that purpose.

The European leaders clearly backed Yerevan’s stance during the Granada talks. Their joint statement cited the “urgent need to work towards border delimitation based on the most recent USSR General Staff maps that have been provided to the sides.”

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