The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry protested against the EU’s pledge to continue helping ethnic Armenian refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh as well as its support for the release of Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan and the Armenian government’s position on transport links between the two South Caucasus countries.
The new Strategic Agenda for the EU-Armenia Partnership was signed in Brussels last week. It is meant to build upon the Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) signed by Brussels and Yerevan in 2017.
The 64-page agenda stresses, in particular, the importance of “addressing the needs and supporting the socio-economic inclusion of Karabakh Armenians displaced following Azerbaijan’s military operation” in September 2023 that forced Karabakh’s entire population to flee to Armenia.
In a statement, the Foreign Ministry in Baku claimed that the Karabakh Armenians “willingly relocated to Armenia.” It said calling them refugees or displaced persons is a “manifestation of biased attitude towards Azerbaijan.”
The statement went on to object to the EU’s and Armenia’s pledge to work together to “effectively execute the judgments of the International Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights.”
“There is no doubt that they are talking about the lawsuits filed by Armenia against Azerbaijan,” it said.
Other provisions of the “strategic agenda” resented by Baku back the continued presence of EU monitors along Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan and reaffirm EU support for the Armenian government’s Crossroads of Peace project relating to a transit corridor to Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian pledged to give the United States exclusive rights to the corridor during talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington in August. The transit arrangement will be named the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP).
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry complained that the EU-Armenia document makes no reference to the TRIPP. The Armenian government did not immediately react to the criticism.