Azerbaijan and Armenia are close to the end of the era of conflict

This conclusion suggests itself based on the results of the meeting in Sochi on November 26 between the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia with the mediation of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the basis of the statement of November 9-10, 2020 to end the 44-day war, which became a guide to advancing the peace process over the past year.

“We see the same attitude from the Armenian side, and this creates preconditions for the normalization of the situation in the region. I have repeatedly said that we are determined to turn the page of many years of confrontation with Armenia and begin normal interaction,” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev emphasized after the meeting.

“We have clarified our positions on many issues, and it turned out that there are no discrepancies on a number of issues, in particular, it concerns the opening of communications and how they will work,” Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said.

The review of the media of Armenia and Azerbaijan regarding the Sochi meeting revealed a restrained and somewhat positive view of the expert community of the two countries. The leading media did not look for dubious facts about the meeting and did not demonstrate attempts to torpedo the agreements reached by the leaders.

The Sochi Agreements are reflected in the Trilateral Final Statement and include:

1. Creation by the end of this year of mechanisms for demarcation and delimitation (DD) of the border between the two countries.

2. Humanitarian issues.

3. Economic ties and, above all, the unblocking of transport corridors. This also applies to railways and road links.

The parties agreed to take steps to increase the level of stability and security on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border and to work towards the creation of a bilateral Commission on the delimitation of the state border between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Armenia with its subsequent demarcation with the advisory assistance of the Russian Federation at the request of the parties.

Azerbaijan and Armenia could have come to the Sochi results much earlier, and the leaders of the two countries themselves expressed their readiness to advance the points of the statement regarding DD and unblocking the transport arteries, but the issue was delayed due to the irreconcilable position of the war party in Armenia. Early parliamentary elections in this country, which expressed a vote of confidence to Pashinyan, incidents on the border that resulted in the death and capture of the military, and most importantly, the growing public sentiment in favor of peace against this background, ultimately led the process to the Sochi breakthrough.

The statement of November 9-10, 2020 takes on real features. Of the three tasks set in the Sochi Statement, a breakthrough in the humanitarian and communication areas should be expected in the first place. The DD issue may turn out to be more complicated and time-consuming, but only on certain sections of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.