After several months of incremental progress that raised hopes a durable settlement was at hand, the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process appears to have entered another retrograde phase, Eurasianet writes.
Recent comments by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev suggest that Baku has pressed pause on negotiations. In an Oct. 4 speech, Aliyev cautioned Armenia against trying to rearm with the aim of reversing Yerevan’s loss of Artsakh.
Aliyev’s speech occurred just days after a meeting between the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in New York, mediated by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Following those discussions both sides pledged to intensify efforts to conclude a peace treaty.
Aliyev’s speech seemed to back off that pledge, given that it also featured pointed criticism of the United States and Blinken personally. Following Aliyev’s Oct. 4 speech, Armenian officials asked publicly whether Azerbaijan remained committed to the establishment of peace, outlined in a document known as the Alma-Ata Declaration.
