Political analysts discuss Yerevan's reaction to Baku's proposal for negotiations

Baku has declared its readiness for talks with Yerevan on the conclusion of a peace treaty, subject to a number of principles. In response, Yerevan has offered to hold talks under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group. Baku's proposals are an attempt to consolidate the results of the 2020 war, Armenian political analysts believe.

On March 14, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) announced that Baku was ready to negotiate a peace treaty with Yerevan, subject to five basic principles. In its turn, the Armenian MFA has reported that Yerevan had appealed "to the Co-Chairs of the Minsk Group of the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) with a request to organize the talks on the conclusion of the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty.

Armenia has agreed with Russia on the appeal to the OSCE Minsk Group to resume the talks, Andrias Gukasyan, a political analyst, believes. "Moscow was waiting for Baku's support in the Ukrainian conflict. But Azerbaijan failed to support Russia at the right moment; and after signing the declaration on allied relations, it began talking with the West against Russia's interests. Therefore, Russia <...> gave the green light for the resumption of the settlement under the auspices of the OSCE," Mr Gukasyan has suggests.

Naira Airumyan, a political observer, has treated the statement by the Armenian MFA as "a weak attempt to reject, in fact, the Baku's five-point ultimatum." "The Baku's proposals are aimed at formalizing the results of the 2020 war, which Armenia doesn't reject at the moment," she told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

In Yerevan's actions, Ms Airumyan sees no intentions to strengthen the role of the West, in particular, of the USA and France. "Most likely, the formation of a new Baku-Yerevan-Ankara format is seen here with the invisible support of Moscow and Beijing on the one hand and the United States on the other. Each side will try to extract its dividends from the new format," the political observer has suggested.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on March 15, 2022 at 06:01 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.