Azerbaijan’s Aliyev pulls out of EU-brokered talks with Armenia’s Pashinyan, say sources

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev on Wednesday pulled out of an EU-brokered meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, dealing a blow to prospects for rescuing the peace process between the two countries.

The meeting had been aimed at preventing any further escalation and restoring dialogue after Azerbaijan last month seized back control of a region populated by ethnic Armenians, prompting more than 100,000 of them to flee to Armenia.

Pashinyan, in need of support to tackle the resulting humanitarian crisis and shore up his embattled leadership, said he will still attend Thursday’s talks in Spain with EU Council president Charles Michel and the leaders of France and Germany.

But Azerbaijan’s state-run APA news agency, citing unnamed sources, said Aliyev has decided not to go.

It said Aliyev wanted his ally Turkey to be represented at the meeting, but that France and Germany had objected, and said that Baku felt “an anti-Azerbaijani atmosphere” has developed among the meeting’s potential participants.

A source in Aliyev’s administration confirmed that the president will not go, but said he is prepared to talk instead in a three-way format with Pashinyan and the EU’s Michel.

Aliyev’s forces mounted a lightning offensive last month to retake control of Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region, whose ethnic Armenian population had broken away in a war in the 1990s. Aliyev said his “iron fist” had restored his country’s sovereignty.

Karabakh has been the focus of two wars between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the past 30 years and they have yet to seal a peace treaty, a task made more urgent by the latest crisis.

Military operation

Olesya Vartanyan, South Caucasus analyst at the nonprofit International Crisis Group, which works to defuse global conflicts, said Aliyev’s no-show is a big setback.

“It was very important for him to come, after this military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh, to recommit to the [peace] process with the mediation of the EU and the US,” she said.

Vartanyan said advisers to Pashinyan and Aliyev met French, German and EU officials in Brussels last week to prepare for the talks in Spain and avoid surprises or misunderstandings.

She said experience has shown that the chances of clashes on the ground are higher when the two sides stop talking. Outstanding bilateral issues include how to define their shared border and reopen transport links that have been severed by decades of conflict.

Azerbaijan’s APA agency said Aliyev’s decision not to attend was partly prompted by “pro-Armenian statements” by French officials and France’s decision, announced on Tuesday, to supply Yerevan with military equipment.

Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry also condemned what it said were unfounded comments on Wednesday by French foreign minister Catherine Colonna.

Colonna told a parliamentary hearing that France is not looking to escalate the crisis, but that it is normal to continue defensive weapons sales to Yerevan when “Azerbaijan has never stopped arming itself to carry out offensive actions”.

Robust reactions

The EU must send a clear signal that any threats to Armenia’s territorial integrity are unacceptable, said Colonna, who visited Pashinyan on Tuesday.

“I repeat, any action in this direction would give rise to robust reactions,” she said.

APA said Azerbaijan will not attend any future talks that include France.

Omer Celik, spokesperson for Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party, backed Aliyev’s decision to shun the talks.

“Aliyev cancelled his Spain visit because the condition of Turkey’s participation was not accepted. We admire this,” he said.

US Senator Ben Cardin, chair of the foreign relations committee, said Washington should withhold security assistance to Azerbaijan and hold it accountable for what he called its “co-ordinated, intentional campaign of ethnic cleansing” in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan denies ethnic cleansing, saying the Armenians were not forced to leave and would enjoy full civic rights if they stayed. But many of those who fled said they do not trust that promise, given the bloody history between the two peoples.

Reuters