Aliyev “tricked” to show Azerbaijan is in leading positions in negotiations
The organization of the meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev in Geneva on October 16 was the main goal of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs after almost a year and a half pause. Still before unleashing a war in April, Aliyev consistently worked for keeping the negotiation process in a deadlock, carrying out a propaganda of military resolution of the issue. After the April war and the meetings in Vienna and St. Petersburg, Aliyev’s goal was to hinder the implementation of the investigation of border incidents, for more than a year, official Baku did not agree on that request of the mediators, presenting them as “preconditions” of the Armenian side.
What was the atmosphere of the Sargsyan-Aliyev meeting? The meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan Edward Nalbandian and Elmar Mammadyarov with the participation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs took place in New York on September 22-23 within the framework of the UN General Assembly, during which the question of organizing the meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents was discussed. During the first week of October the Co-chairs arrived in the region. By the way, the newly appointed US Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Andrew Sheffer visited Artsakh on October 4, and in early October, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson expressed his support for Congressman Brad Sherman’s and David Chichillini’s requests. “The State Department supports the proposals of withdrawal of snipers, launching the OSCE investigation mechanisms and deploying transmitters on the contact line and the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. The US is a member of the OSCE Minsk Group process, which is aimed at strengthening confidence-building measures, which, in our opinion, will reduce the number of violence in the conflict zone”, Tillerson had told.
Aliyev “tricked” to show Azerbaijan is in leading positions in negotiations. In fact, his move contained clear notes of justification for how come the head of Azerbaijan, who has unleashed a war a year ago, has been disappointed with the negotiation process for years, and has disgraced the OSCE Minsk Group from time to time, goes for negotiations again. “The negotiation process on the Karabakh settlement is resumed today without any preconditions”, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated at the government session, adding, “By putting forward various preconditions, Armenia wanted to hinder the resumption of negotiations, but now it has to abandon that policy”.
After their regional visit in Baku, the Co-Chairs stated that Sargsyan and Aliyev are ready to resume negotiations. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group noted that the meeting with Armenian president on October 6 and Azerbaijani president on October 7 had a goal to complete the preparations for the meeting of the two presidents and clarify the range of issues to be discussed.
“Both presidents have confirmed their willingness to resume negotiations to reach a peaceful settlement of the conflict”, the mediators recorded a joint statement. According to the official message, the mediators discussed the possibility of promoting the process of peaceful settlement of the Karabakh issue at the meeting with Serzh Sargsyan in Yerevan.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, in fact, under certain pressure, gave his consent to meet with Serzh Sargsyan in Geneva. Aliyev had already made a propaganda “trick” at the meeting with the EU delegation in Baku in early October, stating, “We think that Armenia is returning to the negotiation process and that’s a very important issue”, but he also had voiced about the desired position for Baku, emphasizing: “With regard to all conflicts in the post-Soviet territory, the European Union must show the same position, the otherwise the situation will be considered as expression of dual approaches”.
The closer the Geneva meeting drew, the more nervous the Azerbaijani leader became. He demanded that the international community impose sanctions against Armenia: “If sanctions were imposed against Armenia, serious sanctions against the country which violates the international law norms and the humanitarian laws, it is possible that the conflict had been resolved long ago. Such moderate policy of the international community towards Armenia creates an idea that they can continue to illegally stay in our lands”, Aliyev said at the meeting with the EU delegation, urging the OSCE Minsk Group to increase pressure on Armenia.
Forming a necessary propaganda atmosphere before the Geneva meeting around the “victorious” image of Azerbaijan, at the same time, Aliyev did not conceal dissatisfaction with the European structures. Attempts to present Azerbaijan as a totalitarian country and to defame the country come from certain circles, who are not interested in development and aspire to rule in Azerbaijan, said the Azerbaijani President at a meeting with the delegation of the EU Committee on Policy and Security: “Those circles are trying to present Azerbaijan as a totalitarian, authoritarian country where rights and freedoms are violated. The trend continues since my very days of being elected president”. He called the “Armenian lobby, a number of NGOs and some circles, who cannot obtain the desired thing from them, as the authors of the “defaming campaign”. Aliyev considered it necessary to address even the possibility of leaving the Council of Europe, noting that the public opinion on the Council of Europe is not so positive. “Attacks targeted against Azerbaijan cause disappointment, contributing to the idea that “we don’t need such an organization”. I will tell you openly: if Azerbaijan leaves the Council of Europe, no one will care. Nothing will change in our lives, we will not start living better, or worse, richer, or poorer”, Aliyev had stated.
Emma GABRIELYAN
