2023-10-26 06:51:32
Toivo Klaar, the special representative of the European Union for the South Caucasus, said at a forum he participated in remotely in Yerevan that the meeting between the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and the President of the Council of the European Union Charles Michel planned in Brussels at the end of this month will not take place.
Toivo Klaar cited the timing problem as the reason for the postponement of the meeting. Journalist Konul Sahin spoke to analysts about the reasons why the meeting did not take place.
On October 5, while answering the questions of journalists in Granada, Charles Michel announced that the parties had agreed on this meeting.
Klaar noted that they are trying to organize a new meeting between Aliyev and Pashinyan in Brussels:
“Although the process is slow, we believe that the result will be the signing of the document,” Toivo Klaar said.
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said at a joint press conference with the Canadian Foreign Minister in Yerevan that the reason for the Brussels meeting not to take place is the lack of time of the President of Azerbaijan.
“We are still ready for a meeting. I hope the reason is really lack of time. And there will be an opportunity to set new dates for the meeting. Armenia is ready for the meeting, as I have already said, we are committed to the peace agenda,” Mirzoyan stressed.
Earlier, during their speeches on various platforms, the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia emphasized that their main goal is to sign a peace agreement by the end of the year.
On October 17, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia stated in his speech at the European Parliament that they are ready to sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan by the end of the year.
Pashinyan, who met with his Lithuanian colleague Ingrida Simonite in Yerevan on October 19, said that a road map for peace was determined as a result of the negotiations with the Azerbaijani side mediated by Charles Michel.
At the same time, the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev once again expressed his desire to advance the negotiations on the peace agreement with Armenia and sign it as soon as possible in the meeting with Joshua Huck, the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Southern Europe and the Caucasus, on October 20.
On the same day, Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanyan announced that Yerevan had received Baku’s new proposals regarding the peace agreement, but they had not yet responded to the proposal:
“While preparing the response package, we expect the Azerbaijani side to clearly demonstrate its position regarding the Granada statement and to raise whether it is acceptable for them,” Vahan Kostanyan said.
In the Granada statement received by Charles Michel, Nicole Pashinyan, Olaf Scholtz and Emmanuel Macron, the parties emphasized that they are committed to all efforts aimed at the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan on the basis of mutual recognition of the sovereignty, inviolability of borders and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and Armenia.
At the same time, the statement said that Karabakh Armenians should be free to exercise their right to return to their homes and places of residence without any conditions and under international monitoring.
BBC News Azerbaijani-speaking British journalist and political commentator Onnik James Krikorian says that there are many reasons why this meeting did not take place and it should not be seen as an unexpected event. He says he assumes this could happen for weeks:
“First, there have long been suspicions that Pashinyan was delaying the signing of the deal in the hope of a better outcome, and these suspicions were heightened by the movement towards the EU and back to France in October. Secondly, after the attack on Karabakh on September 19, Aliyev probably no longer sees the urgency for an agreement.”
Bbc
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