Ilham ALIYEV (President of the Republic of Azerbaijan), Emmanuel MACRON (President of France), Charles MICHEL (President of the European Council), Nikol PASHINYAN (Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia), Olaf SCHOLZ (Federal Chancellor, Germany) © European Union
A tight series of talks and meetings attended by Nikol Pashinyan, prime minister of Armenia and Ilham Aliyev, president of Azerbaijan, took place in various locations, from Moscow to Chişinău and even in Ankara. The goal was to seek the normalisation of relations between Yerevan and Baku. Read more in my recent piece for Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa.
Following last month’s meeting in Brussels between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev hosted by European Council President Charles Michel, talks between Yerevan and Baku continue to intensify. Not to be outdone by the flurry of activity from the United States and the European Union, Russian President Putin also hosted the two leaders at the sidelines of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council meeting in Moscow on 25 May.
Although Azerbaijan is not a member of the Eurasian Economic Union, Aliyev attended as a guest, something that Armenia had always vetoed before. The event had also been preceded by another meeting of the trilateral working group on unblocking regional transport routes in the region following the 2020 Karabakh war as led by the deputy Prime Ministers of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia. The actual trilateral between Aliyev, Pashinyan, and Putin, however, lasted just 20 minutes.
Putin did nonetheless say that the differences between Baku and Yerevan were “purely technical” and “surmountable,” in apparent reference to what had appeared to be an impasse on the reconstruction of rail links between Azerbaijan and its exclave of Nakhchivan through Armenia. Indeed, the next meeting of the trilateral working group was announced for Friday 2 June. Following that meeting it was announced that the sides had finally reached a “general agreement”.
Even so, arguments on terminologies still persist, with Pashinyan objecting directly to Aliyev’s use of the term “Zangezur Corridor” during the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council meeting. Aliyev responded by saying that the term does not amount to a territorial claim on Armenian soil. Instead, some argue, the only extra-territorial implication in the unblocking of regional transportation lies in the 2020 ceasefire statement itself which foresees Russian control over it.
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At the reception following the inauguration ceremony, photographs of Aliyev and Pashinyan talking amicably and informally filled social media. Erdoğan also posed for photographs with Pashinyan and senior representatives of Turkiye’s ethnic Armenian community. Aliyev was also shown speaking to – and laughing with – Istanbul’s Armenian Patriarch Sahak Mashalyan.
Meanwhile, following their 1-4 May talks in Arlington, Virginia, the Armenian and Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers are due to meet again in Washington D.C.. It is believed this could be on 12 June.
The full article can be read here.
