“We see a non-constructive approach, which, in turn, can cause many problems and risks,” Artur Hovannisian, a lawmaker representing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract faction in the National Assembly, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Friday.
Azerbaijan canceled talks planned in Washington for November 20, complaining about the statements of James O’Brien, a senior U.S. Department of State official who criticized Baku during a recent congressional hearing, warning that “nothing will be normal with Azerbaijan” after its one-day military operation against Nagorno-Karabakh in September “until we see progress on the peace track.”
In response, Baku described this approach by the United States as “one-sided”, warning that Washington could lose its role as a mediator.
Earlier, Azerbaijan also refused to attend meetings in Granada and Brussels that were planned by leaders of the European Union.
The government of Armenia, however, says it still does not rule out the signing of a peace treaty with Azerbaijan by the end of the year.
“We do not rule out anything. We are moving forward constructively with the peace agenda, and I repeat, I also hope that with the mediation and efforts of our international partners, it will be possible to move forward effectively and return Azerbaijan to a constructive framework,” Hovannisian stressed.
Artur Khachatrian, a lawmaker with the opposition Hayastan faction in the Armenian parliament, meanwhile, said that he believed that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev rejected the meetings organized first by the European Union and then through the mediation of the United States because “Western platforms are no longer interesting to Azerbaijan.”
“Baku has already got what it wanted, namely Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh – red.],” he said.
“Let’s not forget that for the first time in the history of the Third Republic of Armenia, without having any right to do that, [an Armenian leader], Nikol Pashinian, has recognized the sovereignty of Azerbaijan over the Republic of Artsakh on the Western platform. They got what they wanted on those platforms, now they have nothing to get from there anymore. That’s the main reason,” the opposition lawmaker told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
“What it is fraught with? A new war?” he added.
The fact that Azerbaijan has canceled three meetings in the last two months, according to another opposition lawmaker Tigran Abrahamian, shows that Baku is buying time, trying to understand whether it is worth taking the path of military operations to achieve its maximum goals.
“I think that a certain calculation and re-evaluation of the balance of forces is taking place in Azerbaijan at the moment, because it is obvious that Azerbaijan today also has territorial claims towards various settlements of the Republic of Armenia. Recently, they have been quite actively talking about so-called enclaves, about their demands in relation to eight villages, and maybe at this stage Azerbaijan is trying to gain time, to assess the situation and see whether to resort to military action in specific directions in order to achieve its maximum goals,” Abrahamian, of the Pativ Unem faction, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Officials in Azerbaijan routinely deny statements from the Armenian side about Baku’s being unconstructive in the negotiations, for their part accusing Yerevan of not willing to make headway in the peace process.