Top Azerbaijani officials have rejected claims a new conflict with Armenia is imminent, denying speculation the South Caucasus nation might use force to seize a strategically important transport corridor inside the neighboring country, insisting instead that a lasting peace deal could soon be signed.
Following talks with Russian counterparts on Tuesday, Azerbaijan’s foreign minister, Jeyhun Bayramov, said that “there are real chances for the conclusion of a peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia within a short period of time” after Azerbaijan took control of the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh last month in a lightning war.
The proposed agreement would end three decades of conflict that has dragged in global powers like Russia, the EU and U.S. — while flying in the face of speculation Azerbaijan could use military force to secure the so-called Zangezur Corridor, an as-yet unrealized road and rail link between mainland Azerbaijan and its exclave, Nakhchivan.
Speaking to POLITICO, Hikmet Hajiyev, the top foreign policy aide to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, said his country had no plans to seize Zangezur — known to Armenians as Syunik — after the two sides failed to agree on its opening. The project, he said, “has lost its attractiveness for us — we can do this with Iran instead.”
“Our agenda was only about building transport linkages and connectivity through the framework of bilateral engagement,” said Hajiyev. “If this is the case, yes, but if not then OK. It’s still on the table but it will require from the Armenian side to show they’re really interested in that.”
Earlier this month, as part of an agreement with Tehran, Azerbaijan broke ground on a new road link via the neighboring country. However, there are hopes that a transport link could be revived as part of progress on the peace treaty, but without “extraterritorial” concessions that would allow Azerbaijan to bypass Armenian border control. The borders are currently closed.
“The Armenian position has always been clear on unblocking regional communications,” said Ani Badalyan, the Armenian foreign ministry spokesperson. “It must be based on sovereignty and jurisdiction of states and principles of reciprocity and equality.” Armenian officials declined to comment on the progress of peace talks, brokered at different times over the past few months by the U.S., EU, Russia and Iran.
However, Armenia’s incoming ambassador to the EU, Tigran Balayan, has claimed that his government expects an invasion “within weeks.”
Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Azerbaijanis were forcibly displaced by Armenian forces in a war following the fall of the Soviet Union, many from villages inside Southern Armenia. Aliyev has called for them to be allowed to go home, while saying last week “we will return to Zangezur, but in a peaceful way … not in tanks, but in cars.”
In a statement following the crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh in September, in which tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians fled their homes in the wake of Azerbaijan’s military offensive, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was “deeply concerned by Azerbaijan’s military actions” and insisted that “the use of force to resolve disputes is unacceptable.” Inside Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized borders, the battle-scarred territory had been held by its ethnic Armenian population for the past three decades.
Earlier this month, Blinken held a call with American lawmakers to discuss the conflict. Two people familiar with the conversation told POLITICO that the top diplomat said Washington was tracking the possibility of a conflict inside Armenia’s borders, while the State Department declined to comment. Spokesman Matthew Miller reportedly disputed the claims several days later in comments to local media, but officials have since refused to confirm or clarify a position on the issue.
France has announced it will provide weapons to Armenia to defend its sovereignty — a decision that Aliyev says will make Paris culpable in the event of further violence.
However, the EU’s role as a mediator in the conflict now appears to be under threat, with talks in Brussels that had been scheduled for this month being postponed, days after negotiations on a peace deal in Iran, attended by Russia. A senior EU official who was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive issues insisted, however, that the bloc isn’t losing its influence — but that things are simply taking longer to organize.
https://www.politico.eu/article/peace-armenia-reach-azerbaijan-foreign-minister-jeyhun-bayramov/