"Fact" daily writes:
The last meeting between Pashinyan and Aliyev regarding the settlement of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations took place in Kazan, in the context of the BRICS conference, and it was expected that the fifth summit of the European Political Community to be held in Budapest could also be an occasion for the leaders of the two countries to meet. But Aliyev did not go to Budapest, citing his busy schedule.
And while during the contact with Macron, Pashinyan reaffirms Armenia's approach that it is ready to sign the peace agreement with Azerbaijan as soon as possible, the threatening rhetoric from Azerbaijan is taking a new course. accusing Armenia of obstructing the "successful completion of the peace process", so to speak. Then Azerbaijan's Security Council threatened Armenia, stating that if necessary, Azerbaijan can force Armenia to sign a peace agreement by force, because the fist is in its place. Not long after, Aliyev started another series of threats and insults.
He states that Armenia should abandon the policy of militarization and stop acquiring weapons before it is too late. The latter tries to present in his speeches that Azerbaijan has defeated not only Armenia, but also the countries behind Armenia, which are allegedly conspiring against Azerbaijan. are weaving, apparently, primarily referring to France. But threats from Azerbaijan do not prevent Azerbaijan from pretending to the international community that it is committed to the continuation of the peace process and is doing everything for it.
It is no coincidence that Aliyev stated in his conversation with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that the parties are close to reaching a final agreement on the text of the document, and the negotiations will continue after the end of the COP. It is noteworthy that after receiving the 11th edition of the peace treaty, the official Yerevan announced that one or two issues remain unagreed. Baku also disclosed the unagreed points.
They refer to the withdrawal of EU observers from the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and the exclusion of legal disputes with Armenia. But in actual practice, we have had cases when the parties came very close to reaching an agreement, and at the last moment, Aliyev put forward new demands.
For example, during the Kazan process, at one point it seemed that the agreement would really become a reality, but at the last moment, Aliyev's new demands followed, which were completely unacceptable to the Armenian side. If in fact the parties are so close to reaching an agreement, as Aliyev reported to Scholz, then why does the president of Azerbaijan threaten Armenia in different directions? , and after holding the assembly, go to open aggression.
After all, if there were negative perceptions among the international community, then as a result, it would cast a shadow on the climate conference and, in general, on the international reputation of Azerbaijan, although in the case of Azerbaijan, talking about reputation is a great luxury. Baku did not want additional problems, especially being afraid of scenarios of failure of the climate conference.
Without that, during this whole time, the international press wrote about the dictatorial regime in Azerbaijan, the violation of human rights, the economy based on oil and gas, the crimes committed by Azerbaijan and the illegally held prisoners. wants to "eat", pretending to believe that the parties are really close to reaching an agreement. By doing so, Europe actually contributes to the realization of Aliyev's goals, that the climate conference be held under the guise of striving for peace.
Maybe Europe needs to pretend like that, because they intend to be more active in the South Caucasus, taking into account that after the election of Donald Trump as the US president, Washington may withdraw a little in this region. But the other question is that, despite yesterday's hypocritical "affections" towards Macron, Aliyev refuses to negotiate on European platforms, so how will they bring him to the meeting? ARTHUR KARAPETYAN
