Khankendi rejected Prague decision, Yerevan talks about success

Baku/07.10.22/Turan: The important news of yesterday at the summit of the European Political Community in Prague was the statement of President Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on mutual recognition of the borders of the two countries, without mentioning Karabakh.

It has to be kept in mind that the day before Pashinyan, speaking at the Armenian Parliament, stated that he would follow the path of mutual recognition of territorial integrity. When asked of what will happen in this case with Nagorno-Karabakh, Pashinyan replied : "There is a certain space for a conversation between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan to take place and begin. I consider these two directions (the first is the recognition of borders - Ed.) to be of fundamental importance."

When addressing the National Assembly, he accused his predecessors - second President Robert Kocharian and former Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian of recognizing Nagorno-Karabakh as a part of Azerbaijan. This happened, according to Pashinyan, by the decisions to leave Karabakh out of the negotiation process in 1998 and to ratify the OSCE Istanbul Charter on Security in November 1999..

Upon his return from Prague to Yerevan, Pashinyan drew the attention of the citizens of his country to the well-known proposal on unblocking all regional communications.

"Azerbaijan again did not respond positively. Armenia is ready to unblock all regional communications with full respect for our sovereignty and legislation," Pashinyan wrote in his Twitter microblog.

Added to this can be that the Azerbaijani side insists on opening the Zangezur railway and automobile transport corridor, without checking documents and cargo. 

In order not to recreate this corridor that existed in the Soviet times through the Armenian town of Meghri ("Meghri corridor"), official Yerevan  proposed to open all roads of Armenia for Azerbaijani cargo and passengers, foreigners who entered the country on common rights. However, Baku rejects such a proposal.

Armenia's Ambassador-at-Large Edmond Marukyan in his Facebook post presented Pashinyan's Prague meeting with Aliyev and the leaders of France and the EU as a success of the country's foreign policy.

According to him, in line with the officially adopted documents, Azerbaijan has agreed to cooperate with the European Union civil mission, which will be located along the border. "The possible new aggression of Azerbaijan will be monitored on the spot. Moreover, the already occupied part of the sovereign territory of Armenia will be recorded," the Ambassador stressed.

He recalled that the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Joseph Borrel stated on October 5, 2022 that the EU wanted to send an observation mission to the contact zone, but due to opposition from Azerbaijan, the mission had never been sent.

Another important result of the meeting, according to Marukyan, is that by agreeing to recognize the borders of Armenia in keeping with the UN Charter and the Alma-Ata Declaration, "the Azerbaijani armed forces should withdraw from the currently occupied territories before that," the Ambassador said.

The Armenian-populated part of Karabakh has not yet decided on the assessment of Pashinyan's Prague visit. But on the day of the summit, on October 6, the leader of the United Motherland Party, Samvel Babayan, at a meeting with the residents of Khankendi, repeated the theses first voiced in 1991.

"Artsakh will not be a part of Azerbaijan. We must appeal to the International Court of Justice and be able to defend our right to independence," Babayan said.

On the sidelines of the first meeting on October 6, 2022, at the initiative of the President of France and the President of the European Council, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev had a meeting.

Armenia and Azerbaijan reaffirmed their commitment to the UN Charter and the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1991, through which both sides recognize each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty. They confirmed that this will serve as the basis for the activity of the delimitation commissions and that the next meeting of these commissions will be held in Brussels before the end of October.