Why didn't the meeting of the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia take place?

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan refused to meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in the UK. This was reported to the Report by the assistant to the President of Azerbaijan, Head of the Foreign Policy Department of the Presidential Administration Hikmet Hajiyev.

"Such a meeting was proposed by the host of the summit of the European Political Community, Great Britain… We consider Armenia's refusal from this meeting as a manifestation of its intention to withdraw from the dialogue and promote the peace agenda," Hajiyev stressed.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry (MFA) confirmed to Turan the message about Prime Minister Pashinyan's refusal to meet with President Aliyev in London.

"The Armenian side offered to hold a bilateral meeting between the Prime Minister of Armenia and the President of Azerbaijan within the framework of the summit of the European Political Union, which started in the UK, but the Azerbaijani side rejected this proposal." This was stated by the press secretary of the Armenian Foreign Ministry, Ani Badalyan, in response to a statement by the assistant to the President of Azerbaijan.

Political commentator Ilham Ismail shares his assumptions about the reason for the disruption of the meeting of the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia in the "Difficult Question" program.

According to him, it was known a month ago that a meeting of the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia was to be held in London. Therefore, it is not necessary to say that the reason for her breakdown was unavailability. At the same time, the new British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, acted here not as an intermediary, but as its initiator.

"Both sides blame each other. At first, the Azerbaijani side stated that Pashinyan refused to meet with Aliyev. Frankly speaking, this version looks more convincing than the statements of Ani Badalyan, who claims that the Armenian side allegedly proposed to hold a bilateral meeting between the Prime Minister of Armenia and the President of Azerbaijan within the framework of the summit of the European Political Union in the UK.

According to him, this turn of events suggests that the positions of the parties are diametrically opposed, otherwise the meeting would have to take place. There were no other obstacles to this.

At the same time, Ilham Ismail did not rule out the possibility that the refusal of the Armenian side from the meeting was motivated by Pashinyan's desire to protect himself from accusations that he was allegedly following Aliyev's lead and was preparing to amend the Constitution of Armenia at his request, which encroaches on the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. Moreover, a commission has recently started working in Yerevan with the task of drafting a new constitution of Armenia.