Charles Michel’s statement does not mention Nagorno Karabakh: Following the coverage of the Brussels meeting

The trilateral meeting of the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, the President of the European Council Charles Michel and the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev took place in Brussels on April 6.

The meeting was followed by remarks on social networks that Michel’s official statement did not mention Nagorno Karabakh.

However, some Armenian media outlets reported that the events in Nagorno Karabakh were also discussed during the meeting.

Referring to Charles Michel’s statement, the state “Armenpress” agency wrote: “They discussed the recent reported tensions in Nagorno Karabakh, and reiterated the necessity of adhering fully to the provisions of the 9/10 November 2020 trilateral statement“.

News.am also wrote that the “tense situation in Artsakh” was discussed recently.

It should be noted that Charles Michel’s final statement does not actually include the term Nagorno Karabakh. “They discussed the recent reported tensions and reiterated the necessity of adhering fully to the provisions of the 9/10 November 2020 trilateral statement,” the statement reads.

It is noteworthy, however, that while reporting on the private conversation between Aliyev and Michel, the official channel of the Council of Europe mentioned on YouTube that the presidents met during the tension in Nagorno Karabakh.

The video of Charles Michel’s briefing after the trilateral meeting is titled “Charles Michel discusses peace in Karabakh with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan”.

It should be noted that this is the third time that Nagorno Karabakh is not mentioned in statements on trilateral meetings in the European Union. The term “Karabakh” is also missing in the press releases issued by the organizing parties after the meeting of Charles Michel, Nikol Pashinyan and Ilham Aliyev on December 14, 2021 and the virtual meeting of the Presidents of France Emanuel Macron and the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan in February 2022.

However, there is a mention of Nagorno Karabakh in the press release on the trilateral meeting issued by the staff of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. “Nikol Pashinyan referred to the situation and the humanitarian issues in Artsakh caused by the recent actions of the Azerbaijani military units,” the Armenian side said in the statement.

Thus, Armenpress and News.am provided incorrect coverage of the trilateral meeting in Brussels, creating the impression that Charles Michel’s statement contained the term Nagorno Karabakh.

The meaning of the term “Nagorno Karabakh” in the context of negotiations

After the 44-day war in 2020, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly stated that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict no longer exists.

“We are currently in the post-conflict stage of development, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has been resolved and there is no need to negotiate on this issue,” Aliyev stated. On the other hand, the official position of the Republics of Armenia and Artsakh is that the conflict is not resolved.

In addition, Azerbaijan opposes the use of the term “Nagorno-Karabakh”, arguing that such an administrative unit does not exist in Azerbaijan.

“If we are talking about the status of Nagorno Karabakh, I have said that there is no territorial unit in Azerbaijan called Nagorno Karabakh. This word, this expression should not be used. There is no Nagorno Karabakh, there is Karabakh. The Karabakh economic zone was created on the basis of a decree signed by me on July 7, and that’s it. All the regions of Karabakh are united here,” Aliyev said.

In an interview with Fip.am, political scientist Tigran Grigoryan noted that the non-mention of Karabakh in the press release of the trilateral meeting largely corresponds to Azerbaijan’s position that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is over and there is no unit called Nagorno Karabakh. Nevertheless, the political scientist is convinced that both issues related to the Karabakh conflict and indirect references to the situation in Artsakh are discussed during those meetings. “For example, the same statement talks about reducing tensions and other similar topics, although a neutral vocabulary is used. But the problem is that the Armenian delegation is not able to achieve clear mention of the issues in Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as the need to resolve the Karabakh conflict in those statements,” Grigoryan noted.

Loosineh Voskanyan

Mher Taroyan