Russian political scientist: Any meeting between Azerbaijani, Armenian leaders - move forward

At the meeting between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the whole range of issues that need to be addressed was discussed, and any such meeting should be perceived as a move forward, Daria Grevtsova, a political scientist and deputy director of Russia’s Institute for Political Studies, said in an exclusive interview with the Russian bureau of Report.

“The meeting in Brussels between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan lasted about four hours. This indicates that the parties had many questions. The issues of demarcation and delimitation of the border, unblocking transport communications, developing the region, as well as preparing a peaceful agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia were discussed,” Grevtsova said.

She noted that the main result of this meeting was that already in September a working meeting will be held at the level of the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia to agree on a draft version of a peace treaty.

“Of course, each side has its own vision of this peace treaty, its own interests. The work ahead is long and difficult. But the parties must come to an agreement. European Council President Charles Michel confirmed that Europe is interested in security in the region, in this peace treaty, and will make every effort to make it happen,” Grevtsova said.

According to Grevtsova, it is obvious that Brussels, taking advantage of the situation, wants to seize the initiative from Moscow, and, in principle, there is nothing wrong with that.

“Any effort of any country to resolve the situation will be positively received by the parties. Another question is whether Europe will be able to influence Armenia and force it to recognize Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan without any concessions. After all, for 30 years the OSCE Minsk Group, into which a European country was included, could not resolve this conflict in any way and move it off the ground, so it’s hard to say how successful Brussels’ efforts will be now,” she said.

“However, any meeting between Aliyev and Pashinyan is already progress, they can directly discuss sensitive issues and understand the position of the parties. The more such meetings there are, the faster the issues on this situation will advance,” the political scientist believes.

At the same time, she is sure that Moscow is also interested in the peaceful coexistence of Azerbaijan and Armenia, therefore, it doesn’t oppose the initiative of Brussels to take on these issues. “The main thing is that there is peace in the region, and the countries come to a mutual agreement in understanding all the issues that are now on the agenda,” Grevtsova concluded.