The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan may meet again soon for further negotiations on reviving the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process.
Azerbaijan’s Elmar Mammadyarov and his recently appointed Armenian counterpart, Zohrab Mnatsakanian, held their first face-to-face talks in Brussels on July 11. The U.S., Russian and French mediators co-chairing the OSCE Mins Group, who were present at the talks, said they agreed to meet again “in the near future.”
Mammadyarov said on Tuesday that the meeting will likely take place in New York in September.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry did not confirm or deny this. The ministry spokesman, Tigran Balayan, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) that there is no final agreement yet on the date and venue of the next Mammadyarov-Mnatsakanian encounter.
Speaking at a news conference in Baku, Mammadyarov seemed satisfied with his first contact with Mnatsakanian. He said that the latter is a “more professional diplomat” than the previous Armenian foreign minister, Edward Nalbandian.
A July 12 statement by the mediators said that Mammadyarov and Mnatsakanian discussed “a range of possible confidence-building measures” at their Brussels meeting. Armenia’s current and former governments have said that such measures are essential for making major progress towards a peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict.
“Unfortunately, with its actions and rhetoric Azerbaijan is undermining an atmosphere conducive to peace and we will be acting accordingly,” Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Wednesday.
Pashinian said in that regard that Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan was right to warn over the weekend that the Armenian side will strike back harder if Baku again launches offensive military operations in Karabakh.
The commander of Karabakh’s Armenian-backed army, went further on Tuesday, warning that the Armenian military could “paralyze Azerbaijan’s economy” with missile strikes. Baku responded by threatening devastating strikes on key facilities in Armenia, including the Metsamor nuclear plant.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev likewise threatened to hit “strategic” Armenian targets during a June 26 military parade in Baku.