A peace course of with Western involvement and mediation shouldn’t be important, Azerbaijani presidential adviser Hikmet Hajiyev stated Tuesday because the nation is negotiating a settlement with Armenia following the recapturing of the long-disputed Karabakh area.
“A peace settlement shouldn’t be nuclear physics. If there’s goodwill, the basic ideas of a peace settlement may be labored out in a short while,” Hajiyev instructed Reuters.
However on the query of Western involvement, he added: “We’d like peace in our area, not in Washington, Paris or Brussels.”
Relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian army occupied Karabakh, a territory internationally acknowledged as a part of Azerbaijan, and 7 adjoining areas.
A lot of the territory was liberated by Azerbaijan throughout a battle within the fall of 2020, which ended after a Russian-brokered peace settlement and in addition opened the door to normalization. Azerbaijan recaptured the remaining in September.
Years of mediation by the European Union, the US and Russia have didn’t get Armenia and Azerbaijan to signal a peace deal. They’ve but to agree on the demarcation of their shared border, which stays closed and extremely militarized. Border skirmishes, usually deadly, stay an everyday incidence.
Azerbaijan, which has shut ties to Türkiye, has in latest months repeatedly backed out of peace talks brokered by the U.S. and the EU, each of which it has accused of pro-Armenian bias.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan this week credited the EU with serving to to deliver a peace deal nearer, however stated the 2 sides have been nonetheless “talking completely different diplomatic languages” and accused Baku of potential army aggression – a declare that the Azerbaijani international ministry rejected.
Hajiyev stated the US had proven “double requirements and an unconstructive perspective”. Azerbaijan has additionally been extremely crucial of France, which stated final month it had agreed new contracts to provide army gear to Armenia.
In a speech at a convention on decolonization on Tuesday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated France was answerable for “many of the bloody crimes within the colonial historical past of humanity”.
“(France) is pursuing a militaristic coverage by arming Armenia, encouraging revanchist forces in Armenia, and laying the groundwork for scary new wars in our area,” Aliyev stated in written feedback to the convention in Baku.
In an announcement learn out by his international coverage advisor, Aliyev stated Paris “is disrupting stability not solely in its former and present colonies but additionally within the South Caucasus, the place it’s supporting separatist developments and separatists.”
France, which is dwelling to a big Armenian diaspora, is routinely criticized by Baku for harboring “pro-Armenian bias” within the Caucasus nations’ territorial battle.
Aliyev’s phrases come after final month, he refused to attend negotiations with Pashinyan in Spain, citing French bias.