Progress and Challenges: Armenian and Azerbaijani Leaders Meet in EU-facilitated Talks in Brussels

Progress and Challenges: Armenian and Azerbaijani Leaders Meet in EU-facilitated Talks in Brussels

by | Jul 20, 2023 | Armenia, Azerbaijan, Balcani Caucaso, European Union, Nagorno Karabakh

European Council President Michel meets the President of Azerbaijan and the Prime Minister of Armenia in Brussels, 15 July 2023 

Another meeting took place on Saturday 15 July between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, facilitated by European Council President Charles Michel. Read more in my recent piece for Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa. 

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met again on Saturday (15 July) for talks in Brussels facilitated by European Council President Charles Michel. The meeting was the second this year in this format and comes hot on the heels of a U.S.-facilitated talks between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in June as well as new developments on the strategic highway connecting Armenia with what remains of the former Soviet-era Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO).

 

Prior to the 15th July meeting between the two leaders, there had already been other incidents on the crucial road, referred to for decades as the Lachin Corridor, that has increasingly seen Azerbaijan significantly restrict movement to various degrees at different times. The situation has led to the shortages of imported and some other goods in the besieged breakaway region.

 

The meeting lasted just 2.5 hours leading many to initially conclude that it had been fruitless. On 11 July, Azerbaijan fully closed its newly established border checkpoint on the entrance of the Lachin highway when checks on vehicles traveling as part of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) humanitarian convoys to Karabakh from Armenia were found to be also transporting some non-humanitarian goods of a commercial nature.

 

In a statement, ICRC acknowledged that contraband was being smuggled but noted that they were discovered in Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) operated by drivers from a commercial company, albeit temporarily under their emblem, contracted by ICRC to deliver assistance to Karabakh rather than in those official ICRC vehicles accompanying them. “These individuals were not ICRC staff members and their service contracts were immediately terminated by the ICRC,” it said in a statement issued after Baku temporarily suspended ICRC medical evacuations through the checkpoint manned by Azerbaijani border guards as a result.

 

[…] 

 

[…] one of the most pressing issues of all – the question of the rights and security of the Karabakh Armenians – remains unresolved with reported disagreements over how this will be discussed. Both Yerevan and Stepanakert want international involvement in any talks between Karabakh representatives and official Baku, something Azerbaijan rejects, though an apparently leaked memo from a 27 September 2022 meeting between Aliyev advisor Hikmet Hajiyev and Armenian Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan in Washington D.C. appeared to hint that an internationally visible rather than internationally mediated mechanism could be acceptable. 

 

[…]

 

“The population on the ground needs reassurances, first and foremost regarding their rights and security,” Charles Michel said following last weekend’s meeting. “In this context, I expressed the EU’s encouragement for direct dialogue between Baku and representatives of Armenians living in the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. This dialogue should provide much-needed confidence for all those involved.”

The full article can be read here. 

 

CONFLICT VOICES e-BOOKS

 

Conflict Voices – December 2010

Short essays on the Nagorno Karabakh Conflict
Download in English | Russian

 

Conflict Voices – May 2011

Short essays on the Nagorno Karabakh Conflict
Download in English | Russian

Meeting between Armenia and Azerbaijan: little progress for Nagorno Karabakh

Meeting between Armenia and Azerbaijan: little progress for Nagorno Karabakh

by | Jul 5, 2023 | Armenia, Azerbaijan, Balcani Caucaso, Nagorno Karabakh

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Armenia and Azerbaijan made further progress towards a peace deal in the three-day US-hosted talks in late June, yet tensions persist in the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh. Read more in my recent piece for Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa. 

In early June in Chisinau, Moldova, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that the Armenian and Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers, Ararat Mirzoyan and Jeyhun Bayramov, would meet again in Arlington, Virginia, on June 12. However, the meeting facilitated by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken only took place on June 27. Baku had requested a postponement the week before due to the visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, fresh from re-election, scheduled for June 12-13.

 

Despite the delay, there had initially been some hope that last week’s US-facilitated meeting could lead to a significant breakthrough, coming soon after last month’s meeting  between Azerbaijani President Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan at the European political summit in Chisinau. Indeed, on June 8, senior Armenian officers in uniform arrived in the Azerbaijani capital for a meeting of the commanders of the Commonwealth of Independent States border guard services.

 

However, such hopes were short-lived. On June 15, Armenian forces fired on a group of Azerbaijani soldiers who had hoisted their national flag at one end of the Hakari Bridge which now houses the Baku checkpoint at the start of the Lachin Corridor, the strategic link between Armenia and the remnants of the former Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Region that crosses into Azerbaijan’s sovereign territory, temporarily and ostensibly under the control of Russian peacekeepers.

 

In the absence of a properly demarcated border, such incidents are inevitable. Yet opposition activists in Armenia have also criticised  Yerevan for opening fire on Azerbaijani soldiers, claiming no warning shots were fired and that the only result of such an incident was the closure of the Lachin checkpoint and the imposition of what can now probably be considered a real blockade.

 

[…] 

 

“The population on the ground needs reassurances, first and foremost regarding their rights and security,” Charles Michel said following last weekend’s meeting. “In this context, I expressed the EU’s encouragement for direct dialogue between Baku and representatives of Armenians living in the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. This dialogue should provide much-needed confidence for all those involved.”

The full article can be read here. 

 

CONFLICT VOICES e-BOOKS

 

Conflict Voices – December 2010

Short essays on the Nagorno Karabakh Conflict
Download in English | Russian

 

Conflict Voices – May 2011

Short essays on the Nagorno Karabakh Conflict
Download in English | Russian

Breaking bread in the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict

Breaking bread in the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict

by | Jun 27, 2023 | Armenia, Azerbaijan, Commonspace, Nagorno Karabakh

“It is also too early to talk about ‘culinary diplomacy’ in the Karabakh conflict, sometimes also referred to as ‘gastrodiplomacy,’ though countless state banquets demonstrate that is by no means a new concept,” writes Onnik James Krikorian in this op-ed for commonspace.eu. “Instead, ‘gastronationalism’ has often defined the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict – especially over national dishes common to both such as dolma – in much the same way that Lebanese and Israelis have engaged in a perpetual ‘hummus war’.” He adds that “amid the petty squabbling over food there are also positive examples” of how cuisine has bridged divides across the South Caucasus.

In September 1992, as winter approached, critical shortages of wheat threatened to plunge Armenia into a major humanitarian crisis. The railroad from Russia through Georgia’s breakaway region of Abkhazia had been closed because of that separatist conflict and Yerevan had no other option but to approach neighbouring Turkey for assistance. Despite its support for Azerbaijan in the Karabakh conflict, Ankara agreed – though only after first consulting with Baku. 

 

“Ter-Petrosyan called me one day,” Hikmet Cetin, the Turkish Foreign Minister at the time, said in a 2015 documentary made by an Armenian documentary film studio. “He said they were in trouble. Winter was approaching. The European Union had promised […] wheat but due to bureaucratic obstacles and bad weather conditions it was rather hard to get that to Armenia in time. He was wondering if it would be possible to buy some wheat from Turkey […].”

 

Cetin discussed the issue with then President Suleyman Demirel who instructed him to talk to his counterpart, Abulfaz Elchibey. “No-one should be deprived of God-given bread. It’s a humanitarian issue,” the then-Azerbaijani president responded even though the conflict with Armenia over Karabakh had already descended into a full-scale war. Grain shipments, as well as processed commodities from warehouses in Turkey transported by the United States, were dispatched.

 

It might not have given new meaning to the term ‘breaking bread,’ and not least because the Armenia-Turkey border was closed soon after Armenian forces captured and occupied the Azerbaijani region of Kelbajar in spring the following year. But it did, however, highlight the importance of food in conflict situations, something that the current impasse on the Lachin Corridor also demonstrates today. Although there have been no cases of starvation given that Karabakh is largely agricultural, has its own reserves, rationing was introduced, and Russian peacekeepers had been bringing in supplies until 15 June this year anyway, food security has nonetheless shown itself to be of vital importance.

 

[…] 

The full article can be read here. 

 

CONFLICT VOICES e-BOOKS

 

Conflict Voices – December 2010

Short essays on the Nagorno Karabakh Conflict
Download in English | Russian

 

Conflict Voices – May 2011

Short essays on the Nagorno Karabakh Conflict
Download in English | Russian

Street Punk Legends The Exploited Play Tbilisi, Yerevan and Istanbul

Street Punk Legends The Exploited Play Tbilisi, Yerevan and Istanbul

by | Jun 20, 2023 | #TbilisiUnderground, Armenia, Caspian Post, Georgia, Music, Turkey

The Exploited, Tbilisi, Georgia © Onnik James Krikorian 2023

A lively crowd of passionate fans eagerly gathered outside Elektrowerk, a repurposed Soviet-era factory in Tbilisi’s Isani district, last weekend. They were here to see[ME1] punk legends, The Exploited who had come from delivering electrifying shows in Yerevan and Istanbul just days earlier. Now they were bringing raw energy, rebellious spirit, and a dose of punk-infused chaos, to the Georgian capital.

Their arrival was only fitting. Georgia pioneered the regional emergence of punk in the early 1990s and even though recent fashion has seen the electronic music scene dominate the contemporary cultural space, there are signs that punk might be attempting a comeback.

 

[…]

 

“Perfect,” says Buchan in a thick Scottish accent when asked how the shows in Istanbul and Yerevan went. He can’t remember when The Exploited first performed in Turkey, but thinks it was about 18 years ago. Armenia and Georgia were a first for the band, however, and a day before Tbilisi band members shared photographs visiting the pagan temple of Garni in Armenia before their Yerevan show. 

 

“This time was fantastic,” he says. “Armenia – I’ve never been there before or here [in Georgia] but I knew it would be good because we’ve been to Russia and Ukraine and they’ve always been great gigs. Coming here – the people here are crazy up for it. Tonight there’s so many young kids here all screaming. I could be their grandad so it’s absolutely fantastic. Really good.”

 

[…]

The full article is online here.

 

Preventing and countering violent extremism in the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict

Preventing and countering violent extremism in the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict

by | Jun 20, 2023 | Armenia, Azerbaijan, Commonspace, PCVE

Nationalist and ultra-nationalist narratives increasingly resemble those disseminated by violent extremist groups. Not only are the themes similar, but so too are the ways in which they are amplified and disseminated online via different platforms. They also target specific demographic groups, but there are few if any attempts to address or counter them, especially in the context of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict.

However, lessons and best practices from the world of Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) sphere could be adapted and used in traditional conflict resolution initiatives. Moreover, while most nationalists are unlikely to become radicalised enough to engage in violence, rather than simply support or rationalise it, there is the possibility that some could.

 

While most media coverage has mainly focused on Islamist groups such as ISIS and al Qaeda affiliates, they are not the only ones. In 2012, for example, a LGBT-friendly cafe in central Yerevan was firebombed by Armenian ultra-nationalists, reportedly because one of its owners had taken part in a Gay Pride rally in Istanbul, Turkey. Media referred to the culprits as neo-Nazis.

 

Incidentally, the oldest neo-Nazi group in the post-Soviet era in the region, the anti-semitic Union of Armenian Aryans, was also established in Yerevan in 1993 and claimed to have 18,000 members in 2020. Meanwhile, the first known example of actual terrorism in the region occurred in Azerbaijan with the 1994 Baku metro bombings. More than 90 people were injured and 27 killed in two bomb attacks.

 

[…]

 

One first step would be to establish connections, communication, and collaboration between the two spheres. The European Union’s Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN) might be a good place to start.

The full commentary is available here. 

 

CONFLICT VOICES e-BOOKS

 

Conflict Voices – December 2010

Short essays on the Nagorno Karabakh Conflict
Download in English | Russian

 

Conflict Voices – May 2011

Short essays on the Nagorno Karabakh Conflict
Download in English | Russian