Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry called on November 21 for direct negotiations with Armenia in a “mutually acceptable” venue, including at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
Baku’s call came after what appears to be Baku’s rejection of Western mediation efforts in the process of normalizing relations with Armenia.
Responding to the statement from Baku, Armenia’s Foreign Ministry today reaffirmed Yerevan’s readiness to “re-engage in negotiations” with Baku to establish peace between the two South Caucasus nations.
In particular, it mentioned a possible meeting at the state frontier of Armenian and Azerbaijani members of commissions involved in border delimitation and demarcation processes, something that it said Yerevan had already proposed earlier. The Armenian ministry stopped short, however, of mentioning the possibility of direct Armenian-Azerbaijani talks at the highest level.
Sargis Khandanian, who represents the pro-government Civil Contract faction and heads the Armenian National Assembly’s Foreign Relations Commission, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service today that the main principles for Armenian-Azerbaijani normalization, including mutual recognition of territorial integrity and borders based on a 1991 declaration signed by a dozen former Soviet republics, including Armenia and Azerbaijan, after the collapse of the USSR, and the sovereign jurisdictions of the states over transportation links passing through their territories, were agreed upon by the parties in July when the latest round of EU-mediated talks was held between Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
“Based on this logic, it is necessary to ensure the continuity of those negotiations and continue meetings at the level of the countries’ leaders through the mediation of the European Union, in particular, European Council President Charles Michel,” Khandanian said.
“But we saw that Azerbaijan rejected both meetings that were scheduled in Granada and Brussels. Nevertheless, Armenia continues to adhere to this logic and wants to achieve settlement within this framework,” the pro-government Armenian lawmaker said.
A member of the Armenian opposition, meanwhile, pointed to dangers in Azerbaijan’s offer. Armen Rustamian from the Hayastan faction said that by boycotting Western platforms Aliyev wants to achieve face-to-face meetings or meetings through Russia’s mediation “in order to get what he wants” under the 2020 Moscow-brokered ceasefire agreement for Nagorno-Karabakh, namely, a land corridor to Azerbaijan’s western exclave of Nakhichevan via Armenia.
“He has already got what he needed from the West and he doesn’t have any problems there. That’s why he says: if you want to continue calling me to the West with your logic, I won’t come. Your alternative is either to return to the field of the [Moscow-brokered] trilateral agreements or we negotiate face to face,” Rustamian said.
Facebook Forum