14:48,
YEREVAN, JUNE 30, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijan has always resorted to escalating the situation ahead of negotiations with Armenia, but the June 28 attack on Nagorno Karabakh amid ongoing foreign ministerial talks in Washington D.C. was truly unprecedented, according to political analyst Tigran Grigoryan.
“The negotiations were taking place amid Azerbaijani gunshots in the past as well, but it’s difficult to recall a single high-level meeting in the past decade ahead of which Azerbaijan had resorted to such kind of an escalation. This time Azerbaijan used artillery and UAVs in Artsakh, killing four Defense Army soldiers. Baku’s goals are clear in this case. Azerbaijan was relaying messages to Armenia and mediators that if Armenia doesn’t accept Azerbaijan’s demands at the negotiations table it would force these demands on the ground,” Grigoryan warned.
Grigoryan believes that Azerbaijan’s second message pertains to its desire of achieving a disarming of the Defense Army of Artsakh and that seemingly Baku has made it a precondition in the talks. Thus, by initiating the escalation, it tried to bring this issue to everyone’s attention, having pre-planned the attack with a disinformation campaign falsely accusing the Artsakh Defense Army of opening fire.
“With its actions Azerbaijan is willingly or unwillingly delegitimizing the Washington mediation itself, which is clear for everyone. The State Department issued a statement, but it was rather weak with its content because it was once again calling on both sides to refrain from provocations, although it’s clear that Azerbaijan was the one violating the ceasefire. Azerbaijan is skillfully using the American-mediated ongoing process. Baku well realizes that the American side doesn’t want the peace process to fail but that it’s not going to take unilateral actions against Azerbaijan either,” Grigoryan said.
He warned that the mediators ought to understand that it’s senseless to speak about comprehensive peace in such an atmosphere, and if mediators don’t take preventive actions Azerbaijan will present its demands to Armenia with force.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov held bilateral negotiations on June 27-29 at the George Schultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center in Arlington, Virginia.
While in Washington they met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
The Ministers and their teams continued progress on the draft bilateral “Agreement on Peace and Establishment of Interstate Relations”. They reached an agreement on additional articles and advanced mutual understanding of the draft agreement, meanwhile acknowledging that the positions on some key issues require further work. Both Ministers expressed their appreciation to the US side for hosting negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and their commitment to continue their negotiations.
Armenian foreign ministry spokesperson Ani Badalyan told reporters on June 30 that the issues that still require work are the delimitation issues and the withdrawal of forces from the border, as well as the rights and security of the Nagorno Karabakh people.
“One of the issues pertains to the delimitation issues, which implies commitment around the 1975 map. The other relates to the withdrawal of forces from the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. And one of the issues pertains to duly addressing the issues of rights and security of the people of Nagorno Karabakh under an international mechanism,” Badalyan said.
Manvel Margaryan