“We remain committed to our peace agenda within the framework of three principles already agreed upon and hope that recent events in the region and regional countries will not ultimately mean that the peace process is being artificially delayed,” Pashinian said late on Monday.
“If there is more basis to this view, it must be cause for very deep concern,” he added during a year-end reception held at the Armenian Foreign Ministry.
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said late last month that Azerbaijan is “not sincerely interested in peace and stability in our region.” He pointed to Baku’s threats of military action against Armenia and refusal to attend high-level peace talks organized by the European Union and the United States.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev twice cancelled talks with Pashinian which EU Council President Charles Michel planned to host in October. Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov similarly withdrew from a November 20 meeting with Mirzoyan in Washington. Baku accused the Western powers of pro-Armenian bias and proposed direct negotiations with Yerevan.
Meeting with Michel on Monday, Armenia’s new ambassador to the EU, Tigran Balayan, claimed that the Azerbaijani side cancelled the October summits as part of its “continuous attempts to derail the peace process.” Balayan was also reported to urge the EU to help ensure “Baku’s return to the negotiation table.”
James O’Brien, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, visited Baku earlier this month in a bid to convince the Azerbaijani leadership to reschedule the cancelled meeting of the foreign ministers. The conflicting sides have not yet announce any agreement to that effect.
Armenian officials suggested earlier this year that Aliyev is reluctant to sign the kind of peace deal that would preclude Azerbaijani territorial claims to Armenia. The Azerbaijani leader said late last month that Yerevan itself is “artificially dragging out the process.”