YEREVAN, February 8. /ARKA/. An Armenian lawmaker was positive today about a set of latest meetings between Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev saying the most important achievement was a drop in the number of casualties along the borders of the two states and in Nagorno-Karabakh and also a relative calm along the line of contact between Armenian and Azerbaijani armed forces.
The latest, and so far the third meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders was on January 22, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland’s Davos. In a subsequent Facebook post, Pashinyan said their meeting lasted for about 90 minutes. He said they “exchanged views” on the current state of the Karabakh negotiation process and “further discussions.”
Speaking at a news conference today, Tatev Hayrapetyan said the drop in casualties and the relative calm along the borders is a major achievement, since the life and safety of Armenian servicemen is important to every Armenian. She stressed that the meetings of the two leaders are aimed now at coordinating the sides’ approaches regarding the negotiation process.
"There is no decision on signing a peace agreement. There is only a discussion to understand the approaches of the other side regarding this or that issue of the settlement process and to outline ways to advance them," said Hayrapetyan.
According to her, Armenia’s position on the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict is unchanged. “The Armenian side at the level of the head of government and foreign minister emphasizes that the current discussions are about security and status. Armenia argues that Karabakh authorities should be brought back to the negotiating table,” said Hayrapetyan.
She said the settlement of the Karabakh problem is possible only with a change in the mentality of the public in Azerbaijan and serious democratic changes.
But she added that many people in Armenia erroneously believe that the settlement of the Karabakh conflict will become possible after the change of power in Azerbaijan.
‘Despite the authoritarian nature of Aliyev’s regime, the Azerbaijani opposition is even more radical when it comes to the conflict settlement than the incumbent regime in Baku, "Hayrapetyan said.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict erupted into armed clashes after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s as the predominantly Armenian-populated enclave of Azerbaijan sought to secede from Azerbaijan and declared its independence backed by a successful referendum.
On May 12, 1994, the Bishkek cease-fire agreement put an end to the military operations. A truce was brokered by Russia in 1994, although no permanent peace agreement has been signed. Since then, Nagorno-Karabakh and several adjacent regions have been under the control of Armenian forces of Karabakh. Nagorno-Karabakh is the longest-running post-Soviet era conflict and has continued to simmer despite the relative peace of the past two decades, with snipers causing tens of deaths a year.
On April 2, 2016, Azerbaijan launched military assaults along the entire perimeter of its contact line with Nagorno-Karabakh. Four days later a cease-fire was reached. -0-