The foreign ministers of the two South Caucasus countries traded the accusations on Thursday when they addressed an annual meeting of the top diplomats of OSCE member states held in North Macedonia’s capital Skopje. The two men avoided holding talks on the sidelines of the ministerial conference.
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan again condemned the recent Azerbaijani offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh that restored Baku’s control over the region and forced its practically entire population to flee to Armenia.
“With the tacit consent of the international community, Azerbaijan has achieved its long-standing goal: to get the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh without its Armenian population,” Mirzoyan declared in his speech.
“Now the entire sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia has become the target of our neighbor,” he went on. “This, coupled with continuous hatred, military rhetoric, use of force and threats of use of force, refusal to come to meetings organized by various international actors, including the U.S. and the EU, demonstrates that this country [Azerbaijan] is not sincerely interested in peace and stability in our region.”
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev twice cancelled EU-mediated talks with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian planned for October. Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov similarly withdrew from a November 20 meeting with Mirzoyan that was due to take place in Washington. Baku accused the Western powers of pro-Armenian bias and proposed direct negotiations with Yerevan.
Bayramov reiterated that offer and complained about “biased and one-sided actions” of unnamed third parties in his speech at the Skopje conference. He claimed that Yerevan itself is dragging out talks on the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty.
“The continuation of geopolitical intrigues organized by some actors is counterproductive and only serves to drag out the peace process,” added Bayramov.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken telephoned Aliyev and Pashinian on Monday to discuss ways of kick-starting the process. No dates for fresh Armenian-Azerbaijani talks were announced as a result. Blinken met with Mirzoyan at Skopje on Wednesday.
Armenian officials suggested earlier that Aliyev is reluctant to sign a peace deal that would preclude Azerbaijani territorial claims to Armenia. Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 offensive in Karabakh raised more fears in Yerevan that it may also invade Armenia to open a land corridor to the Nakhichevan exclave.
