Pashinian and Aliyev were scheduled to meet, together with Michel and the leaders of Germany and France, on the fringes of the EU’s October 5 summit in Granada, Spain. Armenian officials expected them to sign a framework peace deal there. However, Aliyev withdrew from the talks at the last minute, citing pro-Armenian statements made by French officials. Michel said afterwards that the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders will likely hold a trilateral meeting with him in Brussels later in October.
Pashinian’s office refused to clarify on Tuesday whether the meeting will take place and, if so, when. An Armenian pro-government lawmaker, Gurgen Arsenian, said in this regard that Yerevan “hasn’t cancelled the meeting.”
“I still assume that the meeting will take place and be productive,” Arsenian said without giving any possible dates.
Addressing the European Parliament last week, Pashinian said he hopes to meet Aliyev and sign an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty “by the end of the year.” He said the deal is hampered by Baku’s reluctance to recognize Armenia’s borders and its demands for a special corridor to Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave passing through Armenian territory.
Azerbaijan’s recent takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh raised more fears in Yerevan that Baku will also attack Armenia to open the corridor. Pashinian echoed them in his speech at the EU legislature.
The Azerbaijani and Turkish militaries began on Monday a joint military exercise near Armenia’s Syunik province sandwiched between Nakhichevan and mainland Azerbaijan. It reportedly involves 3,000 soldiers, over a hundred artillery systems and several Turkish F-16 warplanes.
The drills coincided with a meeting in Tehran of the foreign ministers of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia and Turkey. In a joint statement issued after the meeting, they called for regional peace based on the “inviolability of internationally recognized borders” and spoke out against “use of force” or threats of it.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry confirmed on Tuesday that Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov spoke separately during the Tehran gathering. A ministry spokeswoman appeared to downplay their “informal” conversation, saying that this kind of contacts is “customary for such platforms.”