The dispute between Armenians and Azerbaijanis over the
landlocked mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh has been a source
of severe tensions between the Caucasus nations, with several
conflicts fought over the territory over the past 35 years. Moscow
has worked tirelessly to mediate the crisis.
Washington is reportedly making a concerted, behind-the-scenes
push to interfere directly in negotiations between Azerbaijan and
the ethnic Armenian-led unrecognized Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh,
including by blackmailing the Armenian side with the threat of a
fresh round of violence in the region.
Informed sources cited by Russian media indicated that US
officials which until recently had limited their mediation efforts
to talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia proper, are now trying to
force their way into the sensitive negotiations between Baku and
Stepanakert (Nagorno-Karabakhs self-proclaimed capital).
In the form of an ultimatum, Washington is forcing
Nagorno-Karabakh representatives to agree to a meeting with the
Azeri side in the near future in a third country under the
supervision of American curators. Moreover, the Karabakh leadership
has been told that if they refuse, they will be threatened with
something close to an Azerbaijani counter-terrorist operation in
the region, the sources indicated.
The ultimatum has reportedly been received negatively in
Stepanakert overall, but got support from Sergey Ghazaryan, the
self-proclaimed republics foreign minister.
The past few weeks have seen a flurry of US and EU diplomatic
activity in the Southern Caucasus, with Armenia and Azerbaijans
foreign ministers meeting in Washington with Secretary of State
Antony Blinken in early May, and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev holding talks in
Brussels mediated by European Council chief Charles Michel the same
month. In late May, Pashinyan, Aliyev, and Russian President
Vladimir Putin held trilateral talks in Moscow. Pashinyan and
Aliyev got into an argument much reported on in Western media about
transport corridors during the Eurasian Economic Union Summit, with
Putin intervening to quell the dispute.
US and EU mediators spoke of significant progress in the
Armenian-Azeri talks, but few details were made public. However, on
May 22, Pashinyan made the bombshell announcement that Yerevan
would be ready to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan
if the security of its ethnic Armenian population was guaranteed.
This move was sharply criticized by some observers as a de-facto
concession by Yerevan to leave the Karabakh issue pr...