Kenan AĞAZADE
The five-hour negotiation between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashınyan mediated by the President of the European Councils. Charles Michel was struck by an enthusiastic assessment immediately after the conclusion of promising negotiations. The European leader did not hide his admiration and announced tangible results.
He says that he notes that the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia have too much confidence about the mediation mission of the European Union and believe in the fair and comprehensive solution of the tenses in post-conflict situation. The historic agreement between President Aliyev and President Michel during the visit of the European leader to Baku decided an important role in strengthening the Brussels format. The first meeting within the framework of the Brussels format initiated by Aliyev and Michel on December 14, 2021, and then further consultations between the Azerbaijani president and Brussels particularly expanded the possibilities of the EU mediation mission.
The fundamental understanding has been reached – Azerbaijan and Armenia are starting negotiations to finalize the historical peace agreement. Aliyev and Pashınyan instructed the heads of the foreign ministries to begin the intensive preparations for the negotiations. Certainly, Azerbaijan’s participation became possible in the negotiation process only after the adoption by Armenia. Armenia will begin to realize five basic theses put forward by the President of Azerbaijan.
Let us briefly list the theses of Ilham Aliyev, which will form the basis of the negotiation process:
– mutual recognition of state sovereignty, territorial integrity, inviolability of their international borders and political independence of each other.
– mutual confirmation of the absence of territorial claims to each other and the assumption of a legal obligation that such claims will not be made in the future.
– refraining from threats to each other’s security in interstate relations and force against political independence and territorial integrity, as well as other circumstances that do not correspond to the purposes of the UN Charter.
– delimitation and demarcation of the state border, establishment of diplomatic relations.
– opening transport routes and communications, creating the necessary relevant communications and establishing cooperation in other areas of mutual interest.
The fundamental basis underlines the inviolability of the borders and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.
President Aliyev and Prime Minister Pashınyan also agreed to establish a joint commission to resolve border disputes between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Baku and Yerevan expressed their readiness to ensure the normalization of the situation on the conditional border before the delimitation carried out in accordance with the final peace agreement.
On the other hand, the European Union confirmed its readiness to support Azerbaijan in demining the de-occupied territories and stepping up efforts to search for missing people of Azerbaijani nationality during the first Karabakh war.
President Aliyev and Nikol Pashınyan came to an important decision to create an Economic Advisory Council with the aim of unblocking and restoring transport communications, rail and road communications.
Finally, President Aliyev implemented the main principles of his Karabakh policy – the final document does not mention either the territorial-administrative unit so called Nagorno-Karabakh abolished or the notorious OSCE Minsk Group that lost its political and legal status after the end of the second Karabakh war.
The Brussels talks ended with the main diplomatic breakthrough of Azerbaijan with the support of the EU, a new format of direct negotiations was created between Azerbaijan and Armenia. This new mechanism excludes attempts to destabilize the line of contact and guarantees a full-scale normalization of the situation on the border. It also called upon to accelerate work on the completion of the process of developing and signing a final peace treaty.