Armenia-Azerbaijan: A Few Outstanding Issues To Be Breached, U.S. Says, Eyeing COP29 As 'Opportunity'
Armenia-Azerbaijan: A Few Outstanding Issues To Be Breached, U.S. Says, Eyeing COP29 As 'Opportunity'
The United States said on Friday it's hoping that Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan could finalize a peace agreement by COP29, the United Nations annual climate conference, which will take place in Baku this fall, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.
"Yesterday's meeting was to focus on how we might bridge what remaining gaps there are, because we see, as we look ahead to COP29 in Azerbaijan, that's an opportunity, potentially, for the two parties to come together and demonstrate to the world that they're entering a new relationship with one another," Tom Sullivan, the State Department's senior policy adviser to the Secretary of State, told TURAN's U.S. correspondent during a briefing at the Department's New York Foreign Press Center.
Sulivan, the State Department's Counselor, who was present at yesterday's trilateral meeting between Secretary Antony Blinken and his Azerbaijani, Armenian counterparts Jeyhun Bayramov and Ararat Mirzoyan, said that both sides have made "significant progress over the last couple of years on a number of specific elements of what could be a peace treaty."
"There were a few outstanding issues," he added. "... What we agreed to yesterday is that we will continue to identify some potential solutions to some of the issues that we need to resolve," he told TURAN's correspondent.
He went on to add, "The teams will continue to work over the coming days and weeks and see whether or not we can actually get to a place where the two countries are in position to finalize the peace agreement."
Sullivan also stressed that Secretary Bblinken had been engaged on this topic "since going back a number of years".
"We believe the prospects of peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan would be transformative, obviously, not for just their relationship, but for the whole region," he concluded.
Politics
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On Friday, the Baku Serious Crimes Court continued the proceedings in the case of opposition politician Tofiq Yagublu. Yagublu's lawyers requested the summons of additional witnesses, including members of the National Council of Democratic Forces, opposition activists, and Yagublu’s wife, Maya Yagublu. Contrary to the prosecution's claims that Yagublu was involved in handing over money to facilitate a visa for Elshan Huseynov in the Zabrat settlement, his lawyers argued that he was actually attending a National Council meeting in the Pirshaghi settlement at that time. Witnesses can confirm this. The court partially granted the request, deciding to call four additional witnesses. The next court session is scheduled for October 18.
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Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan is not only possible but also within reach. He made this declaration during his address at the UN General Assembly. Pashinyan emphasized that both countries recognize each other's territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders established during the Soviet era.
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According to reports from "Abzas Media," the inmate in the Baku pre-trial detention facility-, Maleyka Bekirova was allegedly beaten on September 23 by the facility's warden, Adalat Gurbanov, when she attempted to make a phone call. The report claims that Gurbanov took Bekirova from her cell number 35 to an illegally established "punishment cell" and assaulted her. Witnesses allegedly described Gurbanov choking Bekirova and slapping her before throwing her onto a bunk, leaving marks on her face and chest.
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The public "Solidarity Committee for Justice" has addressed Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, requesting assistance in the release of Talysh researcher Iqbal Abilov. The appeal notes that Abilov was born in 1986 in the village of Bala Kolatan in the Masally region and moved to Belarus at the age of seven. He received his higher education in international relations at Belarus State University, completing both a master’s and doctoral program there, and has taught at this institution and the Belarusian Institute of Law.
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