Azerbaijan has signaled that it will continue to ignore United States mediation efforts for a peace deal with Armenia until Washington meets its conditions and reconsiders its posturing, which Baku deems to be a “one-sided approach.”
Last month Azerbaijan’s foreign minister Jeyhum Bayramov canceled scheduled talks in Washington with his Armenian counterpart, Ararat Mirzoyan, which would have been hosted by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Official Baku is upset at Washington’s posturing since Azerbaijan’s September 19 attack on Artskah, which resulted in the forced displacement of more than 100,000 of its Armenian residents.
Baku refused to attend the November 20 talks in Washington because reportedly it was upset with statements made by James O’Brien, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, during a congressional hearing about the September 19 attack.
During the hearing O’Brien warned Baku against attacking Armenia to set up a land corridor between mainland Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan.
“We’ve made clear that nothing will be normal with Azerbaijan after the events of September 19 until we see progress on the peace track,” he said, adding that Washington has cancelled “high-level visits” by Azerbaijani officials and suspended military and other aid to Azerbaijan.
The State Department announced later that it was not going to seek waiver of Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, that restricts U.S. military assistance to Azerbaijan.
Speaking to a group of reporters in London on Tuesday, Hikmet Hajiyev, a top advisor to President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, essentially demanded that Washington should change its position toward Baku and scoffed what he called Washington’s “one-sided and lopsided approach.”
“We do expect that there could be some different attitudes … demonstrated by the United States executive branch of government,” Hajiyev was quoted by newsweek.com as saying. “Once it’s done and we don’t have any problems, [we can] continue our discussions on the Washington platform and with regard to peace discussions.”
Hajiyev also hinted that Baku expects U.S. President Joe Biden to waive Section 907.
“Azerbaijan doesn’t need any foreign aid or support … But here the psychological aspect and political aspect is very important, because it was unfair treatment of Azerbaijan,” said Hajiyev.
Azerbaijan has also accused the European Union of harboring “pro-Armenian” bias. Aliyev did not attend EU-mediated talks with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in October.
In an interview with Armenia’s Public Television on Tuesday, Pashinyan accused Baku of “artificially delaying” peace talks, adding to the chorus of complaints by official Yerevan, which asserts that Azerbaijan is reluctant to finalize a deal.
In an interview with the BBC, Hajiyev said that Azerbaijan was ready to continue peace talks and pushed Baku’s new scheme of talks with Yerevan without outside mediation. Hajiyev pointed to a recent joint statement by Armenia and Azerbaijan, which resulted in the release of prisoners by both sides earlier this month.
