Azatutyun.am. Azerbaijan has cancelled Western-mediated talks with representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh scheduled for Tuesday, an official in Stepanakert claimed on Monday.
“A meeting between representatives of Artsakh and Azerbaijan was supposed to take place in [Slovakia’s capital] Bratislava tomorrow, but Azerbaijan abandoned that meeting the day before yesterday without an explanation,” said Tigran Petrosian.
Petrosian said that the Azerbaijani side wants such talks to be held in Baku or another Azerbaijani city, something which is unacceptable to Karabakh’s leadership. Western mediators will visit Yerevan in the coming days to discuss the issue with Karabakh officials, he added without elaborating. Baku did not immediately react to the claims.
Other sources in Stepanakert told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service earlier that such a meeting was originally planned in Bulgarian for the beginning of July and that it did not take place because the sides did not agree on its agenda.
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The authorities in Stepanakert maintain that the agenda must include Karabakh’s right to self-determination. Arayik Harutiunian, the Karabakh president, complained in late June that Baku is only willing to discuss the Armenian-populated region’s “integration” into Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev warned in late May that the Karabakh Armenians must accept Azerbaijani rule or risk fresh military action. In mid-June, Baku completely blocked relief supplies to Karabakh carried out by Russian peacekeepers and the International Committee of the Red Cross. The tightening of the Azerbaijani blockade of the Lachin corridor aggravated severe shortages of food, medicine and other essential items in Karabakh.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken again called for an end to the blockade in a weekend phone call with Aliyev.
“I spoke to Azerbaijani President Aliyev yesterday to express our deep concern for the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Nagorno-Karabakh,” Blinken tweeted on Sunday. ”The United States urges all sides to continue dialogue to reach a durable peace agreement.”
