Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 29
By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:
After the meeting of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at the CIS Council of Heads of State in Dushanbe, it became clear that the Armenian PM does not repeat his former rhetoric and does not defend the idea of participation of the fictitious regime created in the occupied Azerbaijani territories as a party in the negotiation process for settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijani MP Elman Nasirov told Trend Sept. 29.
Nasirov recalled that Pashinyan has been the Prime Minister of Armenia for about four months, and during this time he insisted regarding the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that Armenia is ready to negotiate, but on the condition that the illegal regime would be present at the negotiating table.
"In this regard, President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly stated that Azerbaijan does not accept this condition, and in general, the format of the talks cannot be changed. The format is that in the process of settlement of the conflict, Azerbaijan and Armenia act as the parties, and the illegal regime cannot be represented in the negotiations, as it is the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict," he said.
Nasirov believes this behavioral change is due to the fact that the Armenian Prime Minister has understood perfectly well that his previous approach, aimed more at the domestic audience, did not receive any international support.
"At the same time, he once again witnessed that this idea did not receive support at the Summit of the CIS Heads of State in Dushanbe, and that there is no other way but to conduct a pragmatic policy on this issue. Only the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides should participate in the negotiation process. I believe that from this point of view, within the next visit of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs to the region, expected to take place in October, the position on holding talks at the level of the heads of Azerbaijan and Armenia will find final confirmation, after which the issue of setting a date for talks between the President of Azerbaijan and the Prime Minister of Armenia can be discussed," the Azerbaijani MP said.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.