Thursday, Armenia, Azerbaijan Hold More Talks On Border Delimitation Armenia -- A view of the Tavush province bordering Azerbaijan, November 6, 2018. Senior Armenian and Azerbaijani officials held on Thursday another round of direct negotiations on the delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, a key hurdle to a comprehensive peace deal between the two nations. The fifth joint session of Armenian and Azerbaijani government commissions on border demarcation and delimitation took place at a relatively peaceful section of the heavily militarized frontier. It was co-chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian and his Azerbaijani counterpart Shahin Mustfayev. The Armenian Foreign Ministry said that the commissions headed by the two men continued to discuss “a number of organizational and procedural issues” and agreed to step up their joint work. It did not report progress on substantive issues, notably the mechanism for border delimitation. Yerevan insists on using late Soviet-era military maps as a basis in that process. Baku has until now rejected the idea backed by the European Union. Senior Armenian officials have suggested that it is reluctant to recognize Armenia’s current borders and wants to leave the door open for future territorial claims. In October, Azerbaijani President Aliyev again accused Armenia of occupying “eight Azerbaijani villages” amid growing fears in Yerevan that that he is planning another military offensive after regaining control over Nagorno-Karabakh. Aliyev referred to several small enclaves inside Armenia which were controlled by Azerbaijan in Soviet times and occupied by the Armenian army in the early 1990s. For its part, the Azerbaijani side seized at the time a bigger Armenian enclave comprising the village of Artsvashen and surrounding farmland and pastures. The two sides agreed to hold fresh delimitation talks after Baku offered on November 21 to negotiate directly with Yerevan on a bilateral peace treaty. The offer came after Aliyev twice cancelled EU-mediated talks with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in October. The Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers attended on Thursday an annual ministerial conference of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe held in North Macedonia’s capital Skopje. An Armenian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that they are not scheduled to meet on the sidelines of the gathering. Karabakh Leader Denies Talks With Baku • Ruzanna Stepanian Armenia - Samvel Shahramanian, the Nagorno Karabakh president, is interviewed by Artsakh Public TV, Yerevan, October 28, 2023. Samvel Shahramanian, Nagorno-Karabakh’s exiled president, on Thursday denied through a spokesman a political rival’s claims that he is negotiating with Azerbaijan’s government. Samvel Babayan, a former Karabakh army commander, said on Wednesday that Shahramanian is “calling Baku every day” to discuss the possible return of the Karabakh Armenians displaced as a result of the recent Azerbaijani military offensive. Babayan declined to elaborate on his claims. An aide to Shahramanian, Vladimir Grigorian, insisted that the Karabakh leader may have only talked to Azerbaijani officials about “technical issues” such as the continuing detention in Baku of his three predecessors and several other current and former Karabakh officials. “If they call from there or we try to get in touch from here, I don’t know whether we can consider that a contact,” said Grigorian. “We definitely can’t call it a negotiation.” According to Davit Galstian, a senior Karabakh lawmaker, Shahramanian has managed to speak by phone with at least some of the Karabakh leaders who were arrested by Azerbaijani security forces during the mass exodus of Karabakh’s population. “When I and other deputies were meeting with the president, we asked what news there is from our captured high-ranking officials. He said that … he spoke with them and they said they have not been tortured,” Galstian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. He said he is not aware of other details of the phone calls. Grigorian implicitly alluded to such calls. But he too did not elaborate. Karabakh’s three former presidents -- Arayik Harutiunian, Bako Sahakian and Arkadi Ghukasian -- as well as current parliament speaker Davit Ishkhanian were taken to Baku to face grave criminal charges in late September. Karabakh’s former premier Ruben Vardanyan, former Foreign Minister Davit Babayan, former army commander Levon Mnatsakanian and his ex-deputy Davit Manukian were arrested while trying to enter Armenia through the Lachin corridor. The Armenian government strongly condemned the arrests and urged the international community to help it secure the release of the Karabakh leaders. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry rejected the criticism, saying that they will go on trial for promoting separatism, organizing “terrorist acts” and participating in “aggression against Azerbaijan.” Russian, Armenian FMs Meet Amid Tensions North Macedonia - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan meet in Skopje, . Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan on Thursday for the first time in months amid unprecedented tensions between their countries. The talks, described by the Russian Foreign Ministry as a “short conversation,” were held on the sidelines of a meeting in North Macedonian’s capital Skopje of the foreign ministers of OSCE member states. The ministry said Lavrov and Mirzoyan discussed bilateral ties and the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process. It reported no concrete understandings reached by them. The Armenian Foreign Ministry issued an unusually short statement on the talks. It said only that Mirzoyan “once again presented the Armenian side’s positions regarding the Russian policy and the steps taken on bilateral and regional agendas.” Russian-Armenian relations have significantly deteriorated over the past year primarily because of what Armenia sees as a lack of Russian support in its conflict with Azerbaijan. Tensions between the two longtime allies rose further in the run-up to and after Baku’s September 19-20 military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh. The Russian Foreign Ministry accused Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian of systematically “destroying” those relations and reorienting his country towards the West. Pashinian and other Armenian leaders charged, for their part, that Russia has failed to honor its security commitments to its South Caucasus ally. The deepening rift is increasingly calling into question Armenia’s continued membership in Russian-led military and trade blocs comprising several ex-Soviet states. Pashinian last week did not rule out the possibility of pulling his country out of the Collective Security Treaty Organization. According to the Russian readout of the Skopje talks, Lavrov reaffirmed Moscow’s readiness to “vigorously” facilitate an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace deal based on understandings brokered by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Yerevan now seems to prefer Western mediation of the peace talks. It has ignored Lavrov’s recent offers to host fresh talks between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers. Moscow claims that peace efforts by the United States and the European Union are primarily aimed at driving Russia out of the South Caucasus. EU, Armenia Explore Closer Ties North Macedonia - EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan meet in Skopje, . The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan met late on Wednesday after an EU delegation visited to Yerevan to discuss ways of deepening the bloc’s ties with Armenia. Borrell on Thursday described as “substantial” the meeting held in North Macedonia’s capital Skopje on the sidelines of an annual meeting of foreign ministers of OSCE member states. Writing on the X social media platform, he said they discussed “how to deepen bilateral relations and EU support.” The Armenian Foreign Ministry said, for its part, that the two men focused on “expanding the agenda of the EU-Armenia partnership.” They reviewed “current prospects and efforts made in that direction,” it added in a statement. Armenia’s conflict with Azerbaijan was also on the agenda, with Mirzoyan stressing the importance of “countering any challenges to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Armenia.” “The EU remains committed to achieving sustainable and comprehensive peace in the South Caucasus,” Borrell tweeted in that regard. The talks came as a team of officials from the EU’s executive body, the European Commission, and External Action Service concluded a three-day visit to Yerevan during which they met with Deputy Prime Ministers Tigran Khachatrian and Mher Grigorian and other Armenian officials. An EU statement said the delegation looked into “possibilities to deepen and strengthen EU-Armenia relations in all dimensions,” including defense and security. “The meetings further confirmed the mutual interest of Armenia and the EU to further the dialogue and cooperation in the areas of security and defense,” it said. “The EU will, for instance, further explore non-lethal support to the Armenian military via the European Peace Facility.” The facility is a special fund designed to boost EU partners’ defense capacity. Armenian parliament speaker Alen Simonian revealed in July that Yerevan requested “technical assistance” from the fund but was rebuffed by Brussels. According to the EU statement, the 27-nation bloc also wants to “strengthen Armenia’s economic and social resilience in the longer term” and has already “mobilized” about 500 million euros ($540 million) for that purpose. Most of that funding is loans that are due to be provided by European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB). Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government is seeking closer links with the EU amid its mounting tensions with Russia. Addressing the European Parliament in October, Pashinian effectively accused Moscow of using the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict to try to topple him. A Russian official responded by saying that the Armenian premier is helping the West “turn Armenia into another Ukraine.” 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.