Saturday, Pashinian Says Yerevan, Baku ‘Still Speaking Different Diplomatic Languages’ In Peace Talks Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian met with OSCE Secretary General Helga Maria Schmid in in Yerevan on . Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has said that while Yerevan and Baku have agreed on basic principles for a peace treaty, the two sides are “still speaking different diplomatic languages” in talks. Addressing the fall session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) that opened in Yerevan on November 18, Pashinian lamented that Azerbaijan has yet to publicly commit to three principles for achieving peace that he said have already been agreed upon. Pashinian also said the lack of commitment deepens the atmosphere of mistrust and that rhetoric from Azerbaijani officials leaves open the prospect for renewed “military aggression” against Armenia. “Yerevan and Baku still speak different diplomatic languages,” he said, adding that “we often do not understand each other.” Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev had held several rounds of peace talks under EU mediation before Baku launched a lightning offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh that ended three decades of rule by ethnic Armenians in the region. Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two major wars in the last three decades over the mostly Armenian-populated region. The region initially came under the control of ethnic Armenian forces, backed by the Armenian military, in fighting that ended in 1994. During a war in 2020, however, Azerbaijan took back parts of Nagorno-Karabakh along with surrounding territory that Armenian forces had claimed during the earlier conflict. After a cease-fire agreement was quickly reached between ethnic Armenian forces and Azerbaijan following Baku’s offensive in September, nearly 100,000 ethnic Armenians fled to Armenia as Baku took control of the whole of Nagorno-Karabakh. “We have good and bad news about the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace process,” Pashinian was quoted as saying. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian addresses an OSCE Parliamentary Assembly session in Yerevan. . “It is good that the basic principles of peace with Azerbaijan have been agreed upon,” he said, referring to three principles for peace that he announced in late October, saying they had been worked out during talks with Aliyev in Brussels that were mediated by European Council President Charles Michel. Those principles, he told the Armenian parliament at the time, were: Armenia and Azerbaijan recognizing each other’s territorial integrity, that the delimitation of the countries’ borders be based on the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration, and that regional trade, transport, and communication be opened while respecting sovereign jurisdictions. The downside is that by not acknowledging the agreement, Pashinian said, Baku was deepening the atmosphere of mistrust. Pashinian also accused Azerbaijani officials of calling Armenia “Western Azerbaijan.” “This seems to us to be a preparation for a new war, a new military aggression against Armenia, and it is one of the main obstacles to progress in the peace process,” Pashinian said. The Armenian prime minister’s comments came after Baku said on November 16 that it would not participate in normalization talks at the foreign-minister level with Yerevan that were planned in the United States this month. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said the decision was in response to what it called “one-sided and biased remarks” made by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O’Brien against Azerbaijan. In October Aliyev refused to attend a round of negotiations with Pashinian that were to be mediated by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and European Council President Charles Michel. Baku cited France’s allegedly “biased position” against Azerbaijan as the reason for skipping those talks in Spain. The Azerbaijani leader also appears to have canceled another meeting which Michel planned to host in Brussels in late October. During the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly session in Yerevan on November 18, Armenian Parliament Speaker Alen Simonian said there was a historic opportunity to establish peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Simonian also said Armenia is sincerely interested in normalizing relations with Turkey, having open borders and transportation links in the region, and engaging in negotiations without preconditions. “I have a great hope that these negotiations will yield the desired results in the near future,” Simonian said, stressing that the region needs peace. OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Pia Kauma has welcomed Armenia’s expressed interest in reaching a deal with Azerbaijan. “It is important to maintain momentum in the peace process and for Armenia and Azerbaijan to reach a full settlement,” Kauma said. “We recognize that the background is very painful, but despite the difficulties, this moment should be seen as an opportunity for all to forge a new path for the region based on peaceful coexistence, mutual security, and economic prosperity.” Yerevan Says Armenian Soldier Wounded Along Border With Azerbaijan An Armenian soldier on combat duty near the border with Azerbaijan (file photo). An Armenian soldier has reportedly been shot and wounded along the country’s border with Azerbaijan in what Yerevan says was a fresh ceasefire violation by Baku – the first reported in more than a month. Armenia’s Ministry of Defense said the incident happened at the southeastern section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border at around 9:50 am on November 18. It said the soldier, whose full name was not immediately disclosed, received a gunshot wound after a shot fired by the Azerbaijani military against an Armenian combat outpost near the village of Paruyr Sevak, which is at the border with Azerbaijan’s western exclave of Nakhichevan. The ministry said the condition of the wounded soldier was assessed as moderate and there was no immediate danger to his life. “An investigation is underway to clarify all the circumstances of the incident,” it added. Azerbaijan, meanwhile, categorically denied the report disseminated by the Armenian Defense Ministry, calling it a “lie.” “We categorically deny the provocative information of the opposite side,” Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said. The border incident reported by Armenia is the first in more than a month. Reported incidents and mutual accusations between Armenia and Azerbaijan virtually discontinued several weeks after Azerbaijan’s lightning offensive against Nagorno-Karabakh on September 19 that led to Baku’s establishing full control over the region. More than 100,000 Armenians fled their homes in Nagorno-Karabakh and moved to Armenia after Baku’s military operation. Only a few dozen ethnic Armenians are currently thought to remain in the region. The reported incident also comes as Armenia is hosting an autumn session of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly. Addressing the opening meeting of the three-day session in Yerevan on Saturday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian regretted that “Yerevan and Baku still speak different diplomatic languages” and that “we often do not understand each other.” Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian addresses an OSCE Parliamentary Assembly session in Yerevan. . He also urged the Azerbaijani leadership to reaffirm their commitment to the principles for reaching a peace agreement that he said has been agreed upon by the parties during their recent negotiations mediated by the West. Azerbaijan has lately refused to attend several meetings with Armenia arranged by the European Union and the United States. Most recently Baku said it would not send its foreign minister to Washington to meet with his Armenian counterpart there on November 20 after allegedly “biased” remarks by a senior U.S. official. Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev were scheduled to meet on the fringes of the EU’s October 5 summit in Granada, Spain. Pashinian had hoped that they would sign there a document laying out the main parameters of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty. However, Aliyev withdrew from the talks at the last minute. The Azerbaijani leader also appears to have canceled another meeting which European Council President Charles Michel planned to host in Brussels later in October. Armenia Sees ‘Historic Opportunity’ For Peace With Azerbaijan Armenian Parliament Speaker Alen Simonian addresses delegates to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly session in Yerevan. . There is a historic opportunity to establish peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Armenian Parliament Speaker Alen Simonian said on Saturday. In his remarks at the autumn session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) that opened in Yerevan on November 18 Simonian also stressed that Armenia is sincerely interested in settling relations with Turkey, in having open borders and transportation links in the region and in engaging in negotiations without preconditions. “I have a great hope that these negotiations will yield the desired results in the near future,” Simonian said, stressing that the region needs peace. He said that Armenia’s vision of peace is expressed in the Crossroads of Peace project that was recently unveiled by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian during an international forum in Tbilisi, Georgia. According to the Armenian parliament speaker, the essence of the project is as follows: “All countries of the region live with open borders, roads and infrastructures, are connected with each other by active economic, political, cultural ties, have accumulated experience and tradition of solving all issues with the tools of diplomacy and dialogue.” Addressing the same event, Pashinian regretted that “Yerevan and Baku still speak different diplomatic languages” and that “we often do not understand each other.” Stressing that Azerbaijan has not yet made a public reference to the three principles that he said have already been agreed upon by the sides and did not reaffirm its commitment to those principles, Pashinian said that this deepens the atmosphere of mistrust. “It also seems extremely suspicious that with the highest patronage in Azerbaijan and essentially at the official level, they have begun calling the Republic of Armenia ‘Western Azerbaijan.’ This seems to us to be a preparation for a new war, a new military aggression against Armenia, and it is one of the main obstacles to progress in the peace process,” the Armenian prime minister said. The three-day session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly that is taking place in the Karen Demirchian Sports and Concert Complex in Yerevan has brought together about 300 lawmakers from 47 countries. No delegates from Azerbaijan, Turkey and Russia are attending the session. Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.