2024-07-11 07:43:33
Author: Elchin Alioglu
Source: Trend
Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov met with Armenia’s Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan yesterday in Washington with the participation of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“Today, I am very pleased to be together with the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia”, said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the tripartite meeting with the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia. He said that Azerbaijan and Armenia have done important work in the direction of negotiations, including sustainable, decent peace negotiations that create great opportunities for relations with both countries, the region and the United States.
“The United States, along with the European Union and other partners, has supported this process. Today’s meeting is an opportunity to review the progress made. Based on all the contacts, including the discussions held in recent weeks, I think the parties will agree to a peace agreement, which the United States also strongly supports. “We are together today to discuss what the United States can do to reach an agreement,” said A. Blinken.
According to official information, the parties noted the progress achieved in the direction of concluding the historical agreement on the establishment of peace and interstate relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia and agreed to continue the work in this direction.
At the jubilee summit dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the founding of NATO and held in Washington, the main issues of discussion were the situation in Ukraine and relations with the countries of the Asia-Pacific region.
In the final declaration of the summit, which will be signed today, it is mentioned about “creating a bridge to NATO and the irreversibility of Ukraine’s path to NATO” for Ukraine, as well as emphasizing the importance of activating cooperation with the countries of the Asia-Pacific region.
At the summit of the North Atlantic Alliance, the situation in the South Caucasus, especially the signing of the final peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia, was apparently not among the main issues.
Until two days ago, the official representatives of the Armenian MFA did not say anything about the meeting between Jeyhun Bayramov and Ararat Mirzoyan within the framework of the NATO summit. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan made a statement about the discussions at the last moment.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken tried to demonstrate that he was acting as a mediator, or rather, a moderator, in this meeting.
Thus, the United States reiterated its persistent position and brought it to the attention of the parties.
The signing of the final peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the demarcation and delimitation of the conventional state border, the restoration of transport communications and the opening of new logistics routes, and the establishment of normal diplomatic relations are currently being discussed in direct negotiations between Baku and Yerevan.
Both sides declare that 90 percent of the works related to the preparation of the text of the peace agreement have been completed.
10 percent is related to the inclusion of territorial claims against Azerbaijan in the preamble of the Armenian Constitution. For this, necessary changes should be made to the supreme law of Armenia. Otherwise, the peace agreement will remain at the level of a framework agreement, no one can guarantee that revanchist forces will not be activated in Armenia and new demands for an aggressive war against Azerbaijan will not be voiced, and that the peace agreement will be ratified in the Armenian parliament.
If the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan does not make the necessary decisions regarding the elimination of territorial claims against our country in the Constitution, the peace agreement will repeat the fate of the tripartite declaration signed between Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia in 2020. It should be noted that Armenia did not comply with any of the 14 points of that statement.
Since bilateral negotiations between Baku and Yerevan are a more effective track, the states, organizations or politicians who want to perform some form of mediation or moderation functionality have not yet been able to show that they are capable of serious results.
After the bilateral format of negotiations between Azerbaijan and Armenia was established and realized, J. Bayram and A. Mirzoyan had meetings in Berlin and Astana. The Foreign Ministers of Germany and Kazakhstan invited the parties to the negotiation room, opened the meeting and did not interfere or accompany.
Now, Washington is trying to change this scheme, bring the negotiations to a tripartite format, and confirm itself in the role of a mediator.
Antony Blinken claims the status of the party organizing the meeting at the NATO summit, thereby “restoring the mediation mission”, in addition to the active participation of the United States in the process by announcing that “the parties are close to signing a peace agreement”.
However, no real proposal of the United States regarding the acceleration and completion of the process of signing the peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia has yet been voiced.
The United States emphasizes that it intends to mediate “objectively and impartially.” But Washington’s words and deeds, as always, are in stark contrast.
The United States, which wants to change the mechanism of bilateral direct negotiations aimed at signing a peace treaty and turn it into a tripartite format, is currently providing political, military, financial, economic, geopolitical, and even intelligence support to Armenia.
To the country that is a member of the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the Eurasian Economic Union and the Eurasian Customs Union, that is, the structures under Russia’s total control.
As for Azerbaijan, on the contrary, among the American senators and congressmen, the number of those who do not put pressure on Baku, who make absurd and immoral accusations, who strive to “become more Armenian than Armenian”, and who call for the imposition of punitive sanctions and restrictive decisions against our country is increasing.
Unlike Armenia, the USA does not provide assistance to Azerbaijan in any (!) form, except for allocating a small amount of funds to activate the process of demining the territories freed from Armenian occupation.
Negotiations with Armenia within the framework of the NATO summit are a priority for Azerbaijan, and the Washington format of the negotiations is generally not an interesting point. The only reason why Baku attended the meeting in Washington was to learn the position of the United States on the process directly, on the spot.
In Washington, the American diplomats could not say anything new, did not come up with any proposals, and this is to be expected: because the United States, instead of conducting a policy taking into account the adequate, formed geopolitical realities in the South Caucasus and justice with international law, supported Armenia, using Armenians as a tool, Russia in the region implements the strategy of reducing its influence and then pushing it out of the South Caucasus in general.
It is for this reason that Azerbaijan does not intend to make any changes to its position, “taking into account the interests” of the United States, to sign a peace agreement with no prospects except for the level of the framework agreement.
In addition to organizing the meeting between Azerbaijan and Armenia at the NATO summit, the United States had another goal.
He wanted to find out Baku’s position, or rather what to do, regarding the strategic partnership declaration signed between Azerbaijan and China.
We should also take into account that Washington does not and has no intention of putting any pressure on Yerevan to fulfill Baku’s demands regarding the cancellation of territorial claims against Azerbaijan in the Constitution of Armenia. On the contrary, Washington is not interested in making the mentioned constitutional changes.
The reasons are simple.
The US wants to maintain the tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the South Caucasus and acquire permanent influence mechanisms on Baku and Yerevan with the principle of “conflict management”.
It is not surprising that the United States chose Armenians as the main means of reference in our region and supported Armenia after Georgia chose the way to get rid of the West’s obvious interventions and demands with inadequate instructions.
In addition, on the eve of the presidential elections, which will be the most dramatic voting process in the modern history of the United States, the Democrats currently in power in Washington do not want to lose the support of the Armenian community in the country, that is, hundreds of thousands of votes.
Washington is in a hurry, trying to pressure Baku and put pressure on our country to sign a peace treaty without making the necessary changes to the Armenian Constitution.
At the same time, Joe Biden’s administration, which intends to send the message “we are thinking of you” to the Armenians in the United States, is trying to influence Baku to include in the text of the peace agreement a clause related to ensuring the return of Armenians from Karabakh.
Baku’s position is clear.
Amendments to the Constitution of Armenia should be made, and the clause containing territorial claims against our country should be abolished. As for the return of Karabakh Armenians, it should be parallel with the return of more than 250,000 Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia to Western Zangezur.
Attempts to influence or pressure Baku are unsuccessful, pointless and without perspective.