Ahead of renewed talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev asserted on Monday that Armenia has no alternative but to acquiesce to Azerbaijan’s terms for a peace agreement. Aliyev’s remarks came during a visit to Artsakh, which was occupied by Baku in September and emptied of its indigenous Armenian population.
“Pashinyan, seeking new alliances and embracing other powers, must recognize that its only viable option is to accept all of Azerbaijan’s conditions and relinquish its territorial claims,” stated Aliyev.
This warning follows a recent meeting between Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Munich, facilitated by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Both leaders agreed to delegate further discussions on an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty to their respective foreign ministers.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry informed RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that the ministers are scheduled to convene in Berlin on Wednesday and Thursday. However, it did not confirm whether German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock would be present at the talks.
Earlier in the day, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov announced that Armenian and Azerbaijani officials would engage in negotiations “in the coming days.” Bayramov highlighted ongoing written exchanges of proposals on the peace treaty between the two sides, despite limited face-to-face contact.
Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Vahan Kostanian, acknowledged last week that there are still disagreements on key terms of the treaty. Meanwhile, Pashinyan accused Azerbaijan of plotting military aggression against Armenia, a claim dismissed by the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry as “entirely unfounded.”
Bayramov emphasized that the past five months have seen relative calm along the presumed border between Armenia and Azerbaijan. He criticized the European Union, particularly France, for allegedly stoking tensions in the region. Bayramov reiterated Baku’s dissatisfaction with the EU monitoring mission deployed on the Armenian side of the border and criticized France for its continued support of Armenia in the conflict.
During a meeting with Pashinyan in Paris last Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron insisted that Azerbaijan must unequivocally recognize Armenia’s territorial integrity. Additionally, French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu delivered a new supply of French military equipment to Armenia during a subsequent visit to Yerevan. Lecornu underscored that Armenia would employ this hardware only in response to aggression from its neighbors.
