Charles Michel.
Baku/23.0.22/Turan: Sunday's meeting between Marcel Michel and Ilham Aliyev and Nicolas Pashinyan ended without adoption of a final document.
The Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders have not yet made any statement or comment at the end of the meeting.
If we reason from Michel's statement on the results of the meeting, then we can state the following:
- The parties confirmed their intentions to resolve the issue of border demarcation and the opening of communications. This was one of the points that the Armenian opposition was so actively opposed to. That is, Pashinyan made it clear that he would recognize the border with Azerbaijan and open communications through Armenia. In reality this means the confirmation of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and the functioning of the Zangezur corridor. Both of these factors are also on the list of unacceptable as viewed by the Armenian opposition.
The statement points out that the principles of border management, security, land fees as well as customs rules will be implemented in the context of international transportation. At the same time, contacts between Armenia and Karabakh are not specifically stipulated. This means that Armenian citizens visiting Karabakh will undergo customs and border control in Lachin, as will Azerbaijanis traveling to Nakhchivan.
- The sides confirmed their readiness to conclude a peace treaty which is also opposed by the Armenian opposition.
In Michel's statement, the Karabakh factor is mentioned only in the form of a thesis on "the need to address the rights and security of the ethnic Armenian population of Karabakh".
Thus, the status of Karabakh is also absent in the final document.
To sum up, Baku has consolidated its previous diplomatic successes and Yerevan has confirmed that it will implement them.
Prior to the meeting, officials in Yerevan demanded to include all the aforementioned items on the negotiating agenda. There is no doubt that all these demands were raised at the meeting in Brussels but were not supported by the head of the European Council.
In so doing, the EU confirmed that it is a full participant in the Karabakh peace process and Russia is not the only moderator - another important outcome of the Brussels meeting -02B-
Politics
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Voting in the early elections to the Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan began at 8:00. Voting is taking place at 6,478 polling stations throughout Azerbaijan, including the lands liberated from occupation. 990 candidates are competing for 125 seats in the unicameral parliament.
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Armenia is not against the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group, but does not consider it appropriate to discuss this issue now. "In the context of peace, we consider it possible to make a decision on the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group. When peace is an established fact, the existence of such a format may raise questions," Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at a press conference today. "The whole question is about the timing, we need to understand how effectively and correctly to turn such topics into a subject of discussion right now," the Armenian Prime Minister added.
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He expressed his willingness to meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the border between the two countries. "A meeting with Ilham Aliyev could take place at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. I am open to such a format," Pashinyan said at a press conference today. According to Pashinyan, Armenia recently presented another proposal for a peace treaty to Azerbaijan.
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On August 31, Azerbaijan observes a "day of silence" before the Sunday’s early parliamentary elections for the unicameral Milli Majlis. All electoral campaigning is prohibited 24 hours before the voting. The early elections were initiated by the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party. This decision was motivated by the overlap of the scheduled elections in November with the global UN forum - the COP20 climate conference taking place in Baku.
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