On Thursday, the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan announced progress towards normalizing relations between the two adversaries, with the start of talks between them in Moscow.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met separately with Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of the launch of the trilateral talks, with Russia’s participation, late Thursday.
These talks come in the wake of bloody border clashes between the two neighboring countries, which have been locked in a decades-old dispute over control of the Armenian-majority Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Aliyev said before the start of the talks: “There is a possibility of reaching a peace agreement, given that Armenia has officially recognized Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan.”
He added, “Azerbaijan has no territorial claims in Armenia.”
For his part, Pashinyan said that the two countries “are making good progress in normalizing relations on the basis of mutual recognition of territorial sovereignty.”
He added that Yerevan is ready to “open all transport lines in Armenia.”
Putin stressed that “despite all the difficulties and problems that still exist, the situation is developing towards a settlement” of the Karabakh conflict.
He said that the deputy prime ministers of the three countries will meet within a week in Moscow to “solve remaining issues” regarding the reopening of transport links between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
The two former Soviet republics fought two wars, the first in the early 1990s and the second in 2020, to control the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which unilaterally separated from Azerbaijan three decades ago.
After a lightning war during which Baku took control of lands in the region in the fall of 2020, Baku and Yerevan signed a ceasefire mediated by Moscow. However, the border areas between the two countries are still witnessing frequent skirmishes.
Yerevan’s dissatisfaction with what it considers Moscow’s failure to protect Armenia in the face of military threats from Azerbaijan is escalating.
With Russia focused on the war in Ukraine and unwilling to strain its relations with Azerbaijan, Turkey’s biggest ally, the United States and the European Union sought to steer the talks.
Moscow views Western initiatives between the two parties with suspicion, as it is the historical mediator in the region.
#leaders #Armenia #Azerbaijan #announce #progress #normalization #talks #countries
2023-05-26 06:24:36
