Putin won - experts on meeting of three leaders in Sochi

Baku/01.11.22/Turan: The media outside Azerbaijan publishes expert opinions on the results of the talks in Sochi that ended on October 31 between Presidents Ilham Aliyev, Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Political scientist Arkady Dubnov, in his telegram channel, called the meeting unsuccessful, since key provisions were withdrawn from the agreed statement following the results which could have indicated the rapprochement of the positions of Baku and Yerevan on the way to a peace treaty.
Pashinyan was unable to get from Putin a principled political assessment of the actions of Azerbaijan, whose troops, according to Yerevan, today control a part of the territory of Armenia. Aliyev could not insist on accepting his five-point position which would be the basis for a compromise.

There is no evidence that it became possible to bring positions closer over the transport corridors through Armenia.The only thing that can be stated was the positive role of Russian peacekeepers and Putin himself.

In such a situation, it is reasonable to assume that Baku and Yerevan will again seek mediation in the West. Or shots will be heard again," Dubnov summed up.

Yerevan orientalist Sergey Melkonyan writes about another diplomatic fiasco of Armenia.

“A statement following the meeting was published on the Kremlin website. 1. There is no mention of Artsakh in the text. None. Even in the section where the peacekeeping contingent is deployed. 2. There is no mention of the return of prisoners. This is apparently included in the "bloc of humanitarian issues." 3. And most importantly, no agreements on the withdrawal of Azerbaijanis from the occupied territories of Armenia (about 220 km2)," Melkonyan wrote.
According to him, nothing that comes from the interests of Armenia is displayed.

In turn,  Ambassador-at-Large Edmon Marukyan wrote on Twitter on November 1 that "the path to peace lies through the withdrawal of the Azerbaijani armed forces from the sovereign territories of Armenia, the return of all prisoners of war, the delimitation of borders in accord with the Alma-Ata Declaration and the 1991 Protocol, the opening of communications based on sovereignty of the parties. Guarantee of security, rights and freedoms of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh".

Vladimir Avatkov, Head of the department of the Near and Post-Soviet East of INION RAS, believes that normalization is slowly but surely taking its course. The head of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, by the way, said that he was counting on Russia's further active role in this issue. Pashinyan supported him in this," Avatkov wrote on his TG channel.

"The reverse side of the medal and a bad sign so far is that in the rest of Baku, in many respects, it relies on Turkey, and that one never refuses it. And Yerevan has begun to communicate more actively with the West."

However, he noted, there is progress, and even the fact that the above-named persons are gathering on Russian soil and under the auspices of Russia already says something, Avatkov wrote.—0—