Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov meet in Washington on May 1, 2023 (Photo: Twitter/@SecBlinken)
The Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan are in Washington this week to discuss normalizing relations between the two countries.
On May 3, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov met with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. They discussed “regional security and stability” and the “process of normalizing relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” according to a statement from Armenia’s Foreign Ministry. The foreign ministers previously met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday. Several days of negotiations are scheduled to end on May 4.
The high-level delegations are hammering out a document titled “Agreement on normalization of relations,” according to anonymous US officials cited by Voice of America. The officials also said they are discussing the “rights and security of ethnic minorities.”
“The question of the rights and security of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh is central to the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” another anonymous spokesperson from the US State Department said in written comments to RFE/RL on May 2.
“Ultimately ensuring that this population can feel secure in their homes and have their rights protected is the only way to guarantee a lasting settlement to a conflict that has lasted too long and cost too many lives,” the spokesperson continued.
The spokesperson said that the scope and nature of the final agreement on normalizing relations will be determined by Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Addressing the Armenian parliament on May 3, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan confirmed that the Armenian and Azerbaijani delegations are negotiating over a specific document. He said the document does not contain any new information that he has not already shared publicly.
These are the first face-to-face meetings between high-level officials from Armenia and Azerbaijan since the start of the blockade of Artsakh in December 2022. In a brief statement on Monday, Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the “humanitarian situation resulting from the illegal blockade of the Lachin corridor by Azerbaijan was touched upon” during the day’s meetings.
“We have not parsed our words about the need for the free flow of traffic and people and commerce through the Lachin corridor,” US State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said on May 1 while announcing this week’s meetings. “That continues to be the case, and it’s something that we will continue to raise directly with our Armenian counterparts.”
Blinken held phone calls with both Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev prior to this week’s negotiations. During his call with Aliyev, Blinken “expressed the United States’ deep concern that Azerbaijan’s establishment of a checkpoint on the Lachin corridor undermines efforts to establish confidence in the peace process, and emphasized the importance of reopening the Lachin corridor to commercial and private vehicles as soon as possible,” according to a readout from the US State Department.
The United States and the European Union have increased their diplomatic engagement in the South Caucasus since the 2020 Artsakh War. During the latest meeting hosted by the EU in Prague on October 6, attended by Pashinyan and Aliyev, Armenia and Azerbaijan recognized each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.
Pashinyan reiterated his commitment to recognizing Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity during his comments to the Armenian parliament on April 18.
“A peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan will become real if the two countries clearly, without ambiguities and pitfalls, recognize each other’s territorial integrity and agree on never having territorial disputes in the future,” Pashinyan said.
Russia has been critical of Western diplomacy in the Artsakh conflict, accusing the West of attempting to displace its role as the primary mediator in the conflict. Commenting on the ongoing meetings in Washington, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that there are “no alternatives” to trilateral documents signed together with Russia. He welcomed “any assistance that could help the settlement on this basis.” Yet he also suggested that Western mediation could “dilute the basis for the settlement, which may not work at all in the long run.”
In the past, Russian officials have accused the West of pushing for a settlement that would recognize Azerbaijan’s sovereignty over Artsakh. They have suggested that the Russian negotiation track would maintain the status quo in Artsakh. Western officials have denied this claim.
“We remain committed to promoting a peaceful future for the South Caucasus region. We believe that direct dialogue is key to reaching a lasting peace, and we believe that peace is possible between these two countries,” Patel said on May 3rd.
The US-mediated meetings come a week after Azerbaijan installed a checkpoint at the entrance to the Berdzor (Lachin) Corridor from Armenia.
Azerbaijani protesters claiming to be environmental activists closed the Berdzor Corridor for over four months starting on December 12, 2022, placing Artsakh under blockade and cutting the region off from imports of food and medicine. The Berdzor Corridor is the sole route connecting Artsakh with Armenia and the rest of the world.
On April 28, following the installation of the military checkpoint five days earlier, the activists announced that they were suspending their protest. In an identical article published across Azerbaijani pro-government media, the protesters announced that the establishment of the checkpoint “caused us a sense of pride and joy.”
“The creation of a border control mechanism is aimed at preventing any provocations by ensuring traffic transparency on the road, the rule of law and road safety,” the protesters said in a joint statement.
The statement continues that the protesters “reserve the right to renew the action” if the Russian peacekeepers do not “stop the illegal exploitation of mineral deposits” in Artsakh.
The installation of a military checkpoint violates the trilateral ceasefire agreement signed by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia ending the 2020 Artsakh War. Under the terms of the agreement, Russian peacekeepers were deployed to the Berdzor Corridor to ensure the connection between Armenia and Artsakh. The agreement states that “Azerbaijan guarantees traffic safety along the Lachin Corridor of citizens, vehicles and goods in both directions.”
Artsakh authorities have said that, while protests along the Berdzor Corridor have ended, Artsakh is still under blockade due to the checkpoint.
On April 30, an Azerbaijani public broadcast service shared a video of Armenian vehicles crossing the checkpoint. Azerbaijani border guards are seen searching the vehicles and inspecting travelers’ documents.
“As can be seen from the presented footage, people’s border crossing is organized in a neat and polite manner,” the broadcast service said. “Thus, the claims of the Armenian officials regarding the ‘ethnic cleansing’ of the Karabakh Armenians and the ‘blockade’ of the Lachin road are nothing more than another false propaganda.”
Yet Artsakh authorities said that the travelers had been forced to participate in filming the video. They had been assured by Russian peacekeepers that Azerbaijani guards would not intervene in their journey, according to Artsakh officials.
The four Armenian residents of Artsakh had been stuck in Goris, a city in Armenia’s southernmost province Syunik, due to the blockade. They had appealed to the Russian peacekeepers for assistance returning home, who agreed to transport them in private cars without inspection. Yet they were unexpectedly stopped by Azerbaijani officers at the checkpoint.
The group was returning to their homes in Mets Shen, Hin Shen, Lisagor and Yeghtsahogh, villages in the Shushi region of Artsakh. The villages, located along the Berdzor Corridor, were cut off from the rest of Artsakh by the closure of the corridor by Azerbaijani activists. They have been cut off from Armenia by the checkpoint, placing them under a double blockade.
Artsakh State Minister Gurgen Nersisyan said that the humanitarian situation in these villages is deteriorating.
“An attempt was made to supply food and medicine to these communities through the Artsakh office of the Red Cross, but these efforts were unsuccessful,” Nersisyan said.