Pashinyan and Aliyev Stated Their Readiness to Negotiate

Nikol Pashinyan stated that he is ready to make every effort to resolve the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh peacefully. For his part, Ilham Aliyev indicated that Azerbaijan is “ready for any contacts”. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is ready to hold talks in Moscow with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on resolving the conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The Armenian leader stated this in an interview with the TASS news agency, published on Monday, October 19. Responding to the question whether he is ready to come to the Russian capital for negotiations with Aliyev on Nagorno-Karabakh, Pashinyan said the following, “The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be resolved exclusively by peaceful means. And I am ready to make all the necessary efforts to achieve that result, to come, meet and talk, if needed.” According to Pashinyan, the the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs could participate in the peace talks. At the same time, the Armenian prime minister rejected the idea of ​Ankara’s joining the peace negotiations. “We have an obvious position that Turkey, which has actually become the main igniter of this war, cannot participate in peacekeeping or peace processes in any way, because, obviously, Turkey is not interested in peace,” he said. Aliyev did not receive an invitation to negotiate in Moscow For his part, Ilham Aliyev said in an interview with TASS that Azerbaijan is ready “to stop hostilities as early as tomorrow if Armenia behaves constructively on the negotiation track.” As for a possible meeting with Pashinyan in Moscow, Aliyev said that “he did not receive such an invitation.” At the same time, he noted that Russia “has always played an important role in the settlement of the conflict” and that the Azerbaijani side is “ready for any contacts.” “Many times Russian President Vladimir Putin personally and Dmitry Medvedev before him conducted trilateral meetings between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan. But after the power in Armenia shifted to a Soros-like figure, such contacts have stopped,” Ilham Aliyev said. According to the President of Azerbaijan, the aggravation of the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh is not his country’s fault. “It is not our fault that the situation is still in a hot phase. I have repeatedly said that Azerbaijan is committed to settlement principles, which were produced by the longstanding negotiation process,” he stressed. Conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh In the early 1990s, as a result of the armed conflict with Armenia and the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan lost control over this territory. The ceasefire between Armenia and the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), on the one hand, and Azerbaijan, on the other, was established in May 1994. Until now, the negotiation process with the aim of a peaceful settlement has been mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group, which includes Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Finland and Turkey. The co-chairs are Russia, France and the United States. Azerbaijan does not consider the self-proclaimed NKR a party to the conflict and refuses to negotiate with it. The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh escalated on September 27, 2020, when active battles began in the disputed territory. Martial law was introduced in Azerbaijan and Armenia, and mobilization was announced. The parties reported killed and wounded, including among the civilian population. As a result of consultations between the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Moscow, the parties agreed on a ceasefire from 11:00 Moscow time on October 10 for humanitarian purposes for the exchange of prisoners and bodies of the dead, but this regime was practically immediately violated.