The organization of the meeting between the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Brussels is an initiative of French President, Emmanuel Macron.

"By doing this, he is trying to demonstrate his political activity on the eve of presidential elections."

The statement came from former Foreign Minister Tofig Zulfugarov while commenting on the results of a meeting between Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime minister Nikol Pashinyan in Brussels.

According to some experts, the European Union intends to play a significant role in the peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan as well as the restoration of political and economic stability in the South Caucasus by organizing such events and planning new meetings.

However, Tofiq Zulfugarov expressed a different attitude to the issue, emphasizing that Russia and Turkey have strong impacts on the political developments in the region. He noted that the European Union should put forward serious projects in the negotiations over the normalization of the relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

“Some issues raised by the European Union, as well as the OSCE Minsk Group, contradict Azerbaijan’s position. The co-chairs of the Minsk Group, mainly France, are trying to uphold the future status of Karabakh on agenda in favour of Armenian interest. They should know that it will never be accepted by Azerbaijan. We must understand that the meeting of the leaders of the European Union, Azerbaijan and Armenia has nothing to do with the new negotiation format. Serious measures must be taken into account for the arrangement of the productive negotiations. At such meetings, no positive steps have been taken”.

During the conversation, political commentators noted that it was Armenia itself posing obstructions and challenges to the peace process.

"Armenia does not have the intention to recognize the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan. Pashinyan shows this through his actions. The Armenian leadership does not want to change its traditional position on Karabakh. In this case, no progress can be made in the negotiations. If the European Union wants to achieve a positive result, it must put pressure on Armenia. "Unlike Azerbaijan, Armenia does not show readiness for peace."

In conclusion, Tofig Zulfugarov said that Pashinyan would visit Moscow after the Brussels meeting.

"It is likely that Pashinyan will try to convince Kremlin officials at the meeting that he does not support the West.  Armenia is a state completely dependent on Russia. It is not able to move freely in international relations like Azerbaijan”.

It should be noted that Azerbaijan and Armenia have come to a common agreement on a number of issues at the trilateral meeting in Brussels through the mediation of EU Council President, Charles Michel.

In his speech to media, Michel said that during the meeting, leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to instruct the foreign ministers to prepare the tasks for the peace agreement, as well as in line with the Sochi declaration of November 26, both sides will work on the establishment of the joint commission for the delimitation and demarcation of the state borders.

By Yunis Abdullayev