Representatives of the Armenians of Karabakh met with the authorities of Azerbaijan

On September 21, in the Azerbaijani city of Yevlakh, negotiations were held between the delegation of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh and representatives of Baku. The parties discussed issues of restoration of infrastructure, reintegration and organization of activities of the local Armenian population within the framework of Azerbaijani legislation, the administration of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in a statement. During the meeting, the Azerbaijani side agreed to send fuel, food to the region in the near future and provide humanitarian assistance to the local population.

The Azerbaijani side at the negotiations was represented by the deputy of the Milli Majlis (parliament) Ramin Mamedov, responsible for contacts with the Armenian residents, the deputy special representative of the president in the territories that came under the control of the country in Nagorno-Karabakh, Bashir Hajiyev, as well as an employee of this special representative Ilkin Sultanov. Representatives of the Karabakh Armenians were attended by a member of the parliament of the unrecognized republic, David Melkumyan, and a representative of local authorities, Sergei Martirosyan. In the building of the administration of the executive power of the Yevlakh region, where the negotiations took place, there were four more officers of the Russian peacekeeping contingent.

Immediately after the end of the meeting, David Babayan, an adviser to the head of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) Samvel Shahramanyan, in an interview with Reuters, stated that there was no final agreement with Baku and the need to agree on details.

At the same time, the representative of the President of Azerbaijan for special assignments, Elchin Amirbekov, in a conversation with Sky News Arabia, said that it is impossible to solve all the problems between Armenians and Azerbaijanis in one meeting. “At the meeting, formats for the reintegration of the Armenians of Karabakh were discussed. We think that this dialogue can have a positive impact on the peace process between Yerevan and Baku. The two countries have begun to discuss a peace treaty that could end decades of crisis and hostility,” he said, adding that the future fate of the Karabakh Armenians is an internal matter of Azerbaijan.

Negotiations in Yevlakh took place immediately after the authorities of the unrecognized NKR agreed to disarm their forces and stop resistance. Later, the Armenian Foreign Ministry admitted in a statement that the Karabakh Armenians could theoretically live under the control of Azerbaijan, subject to the establishment of dialogue between Baku and Stepanakert (Khankendi). At the same time, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, in an address to the nation, said that Yerevan did not take part in the preparation of the ceasefire agreement, and the country’s armed forces have not been present on the territory of the unrecognized republic since the summer of 2021, but he “takes note of the decision of the NKR “

The fighting along the contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh began on September 19. During the offensive, according to the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense, the Azerbaijani army took control of 60 enemy combat positions. In total, as a result of the conflict, according to ex-Ombudsman of Armenia Arman Tatoyan, more than 200 Armenian military and civilians were killed, 400 people were injured, and 7,000 were evacuated. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, about 6,000 Armenian refugees arrived at the base camp of Russian peacekeepers. Losses on the Azerbaijani side are not yet known.

Nagorno-Karabakh has been outside the legal framework of Azerbaijan for more than 30 years, so in the current conditions it will be extremely difficult for Baku to carry out the process of reintegration of the region, says Stanislav Pritchin, an expert at the Center for Post-Soviet Studies at IMEMO RAS. According to him, since the end of the second Karabakh war, the Azerbaijani authorities have still not published a plan or general parameters of work in this area and it is not clear how they are going to build communication with local authorities and the Armenian population. “All this time, the NKR lived self-sufficiently with its own built social structure and hierarchy,” the expert noted.

In the event of the dissolution of state institutions in the region, a power vacuum may form, which can only worsen the situation, Pritchin continues: “There will be a problem with document flow, organizing the work of local government, and the work of public utilities. Therefore, for the harmonious integration of the region, Baku will be forced to work closely not only with community leaders, but also with the former leadership as bearers of institutional memory, if the Azerbaijanis are interested in leaving a large part of the Armenian population in Karabakh.”

According to Rafik Ismailov, a member of the Russian-Azerbaijani Expert Council, the dissolution of the NKR state power institutions is a resolved issue, and the parties are only discussing the details of the reintegration of the Armenian population into the political and administrative system of Azerbaijan. At the same time, the expert did not rule out that the current authorities, by inertia, will continue to govern the region for some time. “An introductory preliminary meeting took place in Yevlakh, which outlined the vector of further negotiations. On the agenda is the solution of humanitarian issues with further discussion of the cultural rights of the Armenian population, transformation of the public administration system and public services in the region, Ismailov added.