Experts in Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia on the results of the meeting in Brussels

Baku/16.07.23/Turan: The meeting of the President of the European Council Charles Michel, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, which ended in Brussels, is discussed in the light of the final conclusion in the speech of Sh.Michel. Azerbaijani commentators highlight the EU's approval of the opening of the Aghdam road to supply Armenians in Karabakh, presenting these words as a success of Azerbaijani policy.

Human rights activist and lawyer Rashid Hajili expressed his opinion on the social network, highlighting topics on which there was no agreement in Brussels, since Charles Michel, in his statement about the negotiations, noted only those issues on which the positions of the parties are converging.

The Azerbaijani side stated the importance of the withdrawal of Armenian armed formations from Karabakh. There is no such thing in Charles Michel's statement. The topic of armed formations remained in the context of the security of the Armenian population living in Karabakh.

Considering the position of Azerbaijan, Charles Michel did not speak about any international guarantees of the security of the Armenian population.

If Armenia recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, then, naturally, Armenia, for its part, should take steps to reintegrate the Armenian population into Azerbaijan. So, now the main task is to promote reintegration, remove obstacles in front of it. The Armenian population of Karabakh has a choice between living in the Azerbaijani state and leaving Karabakh, R. Hajili believes.

The head of the Club of Political Scientists of the South Caucasus Ilgar Velizade highlighted the main thing in the statement of the head of the European Union following the results of the trilateral meeting in Brussels. In the FB page , Velizade wrote:

"The Russian-Azerbaijani inter-ministerial skirmish clearly dissonated with the final statement of the head of the European Union Charles Michel, which was sustained in the spirit of neutrality and fully corresponded to the general visions of the Azerbaijani side of the prospects for a final Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement.

It is noteworthy that Michel called the meeting "the last in a series of intensive and productive meetings at a high level." Moreover, not only with the participation of heads of state, but also with the participation of deputy prime ministers and foreign ministers, held since the beginning of May in Brussels, Chisinau, Washington, Moscow and on the bilateral border. In fact, the head of the European Union summed up the results of the entire round of recent diplomatic activity.

The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan once again fully reaffirmed their respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty, based on the understanding that the territory of Armenia is 29.8 thousand square kilometers, and Azerbaijan is 86.6 thousand square kilometers.

Both leaders reaffirmed their firm commitment to the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration as the political basis for delimitation.

What is happening is what the parties called "substantive negotiations" in the conflict past. But then, it never came to substantive negotiations. Now, after mutual confirmation of territorial integrity, there should be no turning back. It remains to certify everything on paper."

Yerevan analyst David Lee also published his vision in FB, highlighting the idea of the West's intention to supply the population of Karabakh with products through Aghdam by the forces of Azerbaijani military and border guards, bypassing the route controlled by Russian peacekeepers.

"Michel referred to Aliyev's agreement on this issue and Pashinyan's silence. In other words, Armenia and Azerbaijan will boycott the Lachin corridor, and all supplies will go outside the peacekeepers' control zone. The West calls this new process "two important roads for unblocking Karabakh," but it is clear to everyone that one of the two roads will be boycotted, making the presence of peacekeepers on it meaningless. And that everything was invented precisely because of this moment."

Sergey Markedonov, a researcher at the Center for Euro-Atlantic Security at the MGIMO (Moscow State Institute of International Relations), commented on the statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry issued in his telegram-channel in parallel with the trilateral meeting of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Head of the European Council Charles Michel and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, held in Brussels. Markedonov believes that the Brussels meeting was held at the peak of Russia's policy in the South Caucasus.

"Moscow understands perfectly well that any peace (in general, any paper) in the Caucasus without its participation is a powerful blow to its efforts, image, reputation. And, of course, it is better to avoid it. Today it is too late to discuss what was done wrong and who is to blame for this, we need to save the situation. For Baku and for Yerevan, much in the dense text of the Foreign Ministry statement is unacceptable in fact. Azerbaijan is in a hurry to close the Karabakh gestalt completely and, preferably, without any special concessions and nuances. Armenia, having no resources to fight "for Karabakh", would like to shift responsibility to Moscow.Conditions that are not easy.  And therefore Moscow's intentions look like a desperate attempt to catch up. There are still chances for this."