“Armenia has always agreed to the restoration of the peace process and it is important that Azerbaijan had also come to this thought. Hence, yes, I do not rule out that an Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan meeting will be held in Riga, and most importantly, it will more look like negotiations rather than meetings as it were in the past two years”, said the head of “Globalization and Regional Cooperation” NGO, also a political analyst, Stepan Grigoryan, in conversation with Aravot.am. Caption: Stepan Grigoryan Note that РИА Новости, referring to its EU representative, had said that under the Eastern Partnership Summit in Riga, the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan will discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict issue. The Summit will be held on May 21-22. “However, there is a move and as far as I understand, there is also a desire with Azerbaijan to revive the peace process. The necessity for, anyway, they should try to resolve the issue through negotiations matured with Azerbaijan,” said our interlocutor.
Stepan Grigoryan
To our question of why this desire arose with Azerbaijan, Stepan Grigoryan said that he, for example, conditions it with the fact that Turkey got powerful blows regarding the centenary of the Genocide. “Azerbaijan realized that Turkey cannot be the sole guarantee of its success.” Our interlocutor is referring to the scale and volume of the Genocide centennial events, the Pope’s and the German president’s statements, and the process of the Armenian Genocide recognition by various countries. “Azerbaijan analyzed and concluded that it is wrong to rely only on its big brother,” opines Stephan Grigoryan, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Armenia on April 24 furthermore strengthened Russia’s positions in the Caucasus. “Putin proved to be smarter than Obama. He realized that this major topic touches upon the interest of many people, including the Jewish lobby.”
Our interlocutor notes that Armenia choose the right posture in the process of genocide recognition and dissemination of information, by putting the emphasis on all the genocides rather than only on the Armenian genocide. “Naturally, it reinforced the position of Armenia, and, as a result, the strengthening of Russia’s position in the Caucasus also occurred. This is why, I believe, that Azerbaijan analyzed the situation and concluded that they cannot rely on Turkey unilaterally and unreservedly. The reasons, of course, are important but not major. The major thing is that Azerbaijan agrees to resume the peace process. One of its guarantees is that they agree to accept the delegation of the Armenian schoolchildren who will take part in the Olympiad, the sportsmen. This is good because the problem should be solved through negotiations.”
Nelly GRIGORYAN
