On November 26, the trilateral Putin-Aliyev-Pashinyan meeting took place in Sochi, at the start of which Russia’s president expressed hope that decisions could be reached in the near future on opening transport communications in Karabakh.
“There are grounds to assume that in the coming times we will not only confirm the activities of the relevant group on the unblocking of roads, but also adopt the necessary decisions for all,” Russia’s president declared at the start of the meeting.
Vladimir Putin also expressed hope that in the near future the parties will begin work on the demarcation and delimitation of borders. Russia’s president emphasized that Russia has welcomed any contact between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, including the meeting scheduled for December 15 in Brussels. Putin, at the same time, expressed hope that at today’s meeting the parties “will take certain steps in the trilateral format, so that the Brussels meeting proceeds more effectively.”
“Azerbaijan has repeatedly proposed to immediately begin demarcation work, and has also repeatedly raised the issue of signing a peace treaty, so that the two countries recognize each other’s territorial integrity and henceforth continue to live as neighbors,” he emphasized.
Armenia’s prime minister disagreed with Putin and Aliyev that the situation after the ceasefire was calm, noted that there had been incidents, and in addition spoke about issues key for Yerevan — the return of prisoners, Azerbaijani troops that entered Armenia’s territory, and the settlement of the Karabakh issue.
“I want to emphasize that the situation is not as stable as we would like. Since November 9 of last year, several dozen people have been killed on both sides, and incidents are also occurring in Nagorno-Karabakh. Since May 12, we have in fact had a crisis situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border; in our assessment, Azerbaijani troops have invaded Armenia’s sovereign territory,” Pashinyan emphasized.
At the same time, Armenia’s prime minister insisted that he is ready to negotiate. “Today we have not gathered only to speak about problems, but to resolve them,” he said, adding that Armenia is likewise ready to begin demarcation work and is interested in the unblocking of roads.
Referring to the settlement of the Karabakh issue, Pashinyan insisted that negotiations on this matter must proceed under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group.
