Azernews.Az

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

Instead of support in Brussels, the Armenian Prime Minister received a diplomatic but yet tough objection.

Nikol Pashinyan was on a visit to Brussels, where he held meetings and delivered speeches on March 4-5. The Armenian leader tried to do everything to bring his know-how in the Karabakh settlement to the Europeans and get support in this matter. This is about Yerevan's demand to achieve participation of Karabakh separatists in negotiations as party.

Pashinyan, in an interview with journalists in Brussels, stated a need for a new format of negotiations on Nagorno-Karabakh. He expressed the opinion that in order to "effectively solve the problem, an effective format should be created, that will require the participation of "Karabakh" in the negotiations".

However, Pashinyan encountered in Brussels an extreme indignation of European officials.

During a joint conference with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on the question of how the EU could contribute to the peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict, European Neighborhood Policy Commissioner Johannes Hahn expressed the opinion that in the negotiations on Karabakh there is no need to invent some kind of new mechanism “just for the sake of novelty”, it is better to stick to the current format.

Hahn noted that the first contacts between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan and the heads of the foreign affairs agencies are a "good starting point" for negotiations on Karabakh, but it’s premature to talk about concrete progress.

He stated that the EU can contribute from the outside, supporting the entire region. "To facilitate cooperation between the countries of the region and, in particular, contacts between people," he concluded.

In turn, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini spoke in favor of the full participation of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in the negotiations on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement without preliminary conditions, according to a message posted on the website of the European External Relations Service on March 6.

"Mogherini and Pashinyan discussed the process of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict peaceful settlement in the light of recent contacts between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Mogherini called for the full participation of Prime Minister Pashinyan in the negotiations without preliminary conditions under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs," the message said.

Pashinyan’s visit to Brussels appeared to be an initiative of Armenians. So, no one invited Pashinyan to Europe and no one was waiting for him there. Europeans, in general, have no time for Armenia and its "revolutionary" leader now.

The European political elite is preparing for the May elections; all parties and politicians have gathered their forces to prepare for the election process. On the other hand, the European Commission sums up its work, the Council of Europe’s parliamentarians are busy with election campaigning.

For this reason, even in government circles, there is an opinion that this was not the most suitable time for a trip to Brussels. Moreover, there was no need to urgently discuss a very serious agenda and a package of documents.

In sum, if Nikol Pashinyan is capable of critical analysis, he must understand that an idea of changing the format of negotiations has failed.

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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94

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