“We are determined on the EU side to work with the partners and with them to ensure that as soon as possible a peace treaty will be signed between both sides,” Michel told RFE/RL in an interview.
In that regard, the president of the EU’s decision-making Council was encouraged by last week’s Armenian-Azerbaijani agreement to exchange prisoners reached as a result of direct negotiations.
“I would like to say that if it was possible for Armenia and Azerbaijan to make some joint announcements a few days ago, this is partially because we help them,” he said. “We encourage them. We suggested some options and some ideas to bring them closer to each other on the topics that have been announced. And we are still working on additional steps to encourage a peace treaty, a normalization agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan.”
Michel was scheduled to host Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in October for further talks on the treaty. However, Aliyev cancelled the talks. Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov likewise withdrew from a meeting with his Armenian counterpart slated for November 20 in Washington.
Michel declined to comment on Baku’s moves. “We are still working on a meeting that could take place in Brussels,” he said without giving potential dates.
Michel would also not say whether the EU or other world powers are ready to act as guarantors of Yerevan’s and Baku’s compliance with the would-be peace treaty. Nor did he clarify whether the treaty will likely make any reference to the rights and security of Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population that fled to Armenia following Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 military offensive.
He pointedly declined to use the word “Karabakh,” referring instead to “this part of Azerbaijan” until recently populated by an ethnic minority.
“We think that they [Karabakh Armenians] should have the right to return or at least to be able to visit this part of Azerbaijan and their security and rights must be guaranteed and there are international standards in terms of protection of the minorities that must be respected in line with the constitution of Azerbaijan, which should be a framework to guarantee those protections of minorities,” he said.
Brussels is therefore trying to “convince the Azerbaijani authorities to demonstrate that … they want to protect the minorities and to guarantee that the international standards are respected,” added Michel.
Even before their mass exodus triggered by the Azerbaijani offensive, Karabakh’s leaders and ordinary residents made clear that they will not live under Azerbaijani rule. Only a few dozen Karabakh Armenians are believed to remain in the territory recaptured by Baku. More than 100,000 others fled their homes later in September.