Before the meeting of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, the President of the European Council Charles Michel, and the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in Brussels, the head of the Atlas Analytical Center of Azerbaijan Elkhan Shahinoglu stated, “If possible, the negotiations between Azerbaijan and Armenia should be removed from Russia’s monopoly.”
And after that meeting, during the joint press conference of the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Russia, Sergey Lavrov stated, “I noticed that after the meeting between the President of Azerbaijan and the Prime Minister of Armenia, Mr. Michel never mentioned Russia anywhere in the communiqué. It already proves what is more important for the EU leadership to develop what you have already brought or to use this Karabakh issue to emphasize its own anti-Russian line once again.”
In response to the question of if she sees a tendency to isolate Russia from the negotiation process, the guest of Aravot’s “Areresum (Confrontation)” program, Tatevik Hayrapetyan, an expert on Azerbaijan, particularly answered that there is a real approach to take Russia out of the region. “Try to get rid of the influence of Russia, which is considered harmful. In particular, some Armenian circles say that Russia is not a good ally, and it does not properly help its strategic partner. And in that context, if we go for peace, to put it bluntly, Russia is the one who came and stood between the two bullies so that they would not beat each other up. Now, if they decide, they sign a document that they will not beat each other, and they reconcile, there is no role for Russia here. Naturally, Azerbaijan is also interested in withdrawing Russian peacekeepers from the region. It is also in the interests of the West. And there are some circles in Armenia that are pushing that agenda forward, still trying to maneuver.”
“I do not know what will happen to the Minsk Group in the future, as our French and American partners are trying to eliminate everything related to the Russian Federation during the anti-Russian campaign. They have also eliminated the three co-chairs of the Minsk Group, announcing that they will not have contact with us within that format. It is their right, if they are ready to sacrifice the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, and the interests of the Caucasus in general, they are ready to sacrifice the interests of the Armenian side in this case, it is their choice,” Lavrov said at a joint press conference.
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The chair of the NA Foreign Relations Committee Eduard Aghajanyan had insisted in this connection that “It is Lavrov’s perception.” And Ararat Mirzoyan said on the spot that “I receive some other news, taking into account the very specific signals and information that I have received from the Co-Chairs from many other countries.” The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia assured, “The international community continues to see the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict within the framework of the mandate of the OSCE Minsk Group.”
“I do not think it’s Lavrov’s perception. In my opinion, it is an objective reality. It is obvious that the West is pursuing a policy of total isolation of Russia in all directions, and the OSCE Minsk Group can not be an exception,” said the other guest of the “Areresum” program, political scientist Tigran Grigoryan. He had insisted earlier during the discussion, “By and large, the format of the OSCE Minsk Group did not seem to exist in practice even before the Russian-Ukrainian war. There were some announcements and visits, but there was no practical negotiation process under that format. The reason is clear: Azerbaijan refused to hold any talks in that format. Aliyev even publicly mocked the Minsk Group co-chairs. By and large, the Russian-Ukrainian war was the last nail in the coffin of this format, and Lavrov’s statement was not a surprise in that sense.”
The expert on Azerbaijan noted a little later, “It was also Russia’s fault that the Minsk Group acted effectively after November 9, as they tried to take full advantage of the levers, and against that background, the role of France and the United States was pushed to the background.” According to Tatevik Hayrapetyan, Lavrov “is making a propaganda step, trying to blame France and the United States for sacrificing Armenia’s interests to their Russophobic interests.”
Tigran Grigoryan predicted, “After the end of the Russian-Ukrainian war, in my opinion, the format of the Minsk Group will be replaced by these two competing mediation missions – the European Union and Russia. We see that the Russian Foreign Minister already sees contradictions between the meeting that took place in Brussels and the actions of the Russian mission, trying to emphasize that all the agreements reached before that in Sochi, and this is only a continuation of that process.”
Tatevik Hayrapetyan also mentioned, “I think official Yerevan is not clear in its positions. On the one hand, he goes to Brussels and from there he says that he is ordering the foreign ministers to deal with the peace agreement. And here they announce that they have applied to the Minsk Group to organize negotiations. In other words, your international partners must understand what you want. You go, you say something somewhere, and something else somewhere else. There is a serious mess here.”
The entire discussion is in the video.
Anna Israelyan
