Negotiations on the Artsakh Issue to Resume Again: 'Zhoghovurd'

The issue of exchanging prisoners of war between Armenia and Azerbaijan remains unresolved, but the parties have agreed to continue their work. This was announced yesterday by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan after the first meeting of the leaders of Armenia, Russia, and Azerbaijan—Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev—since the war. He noted that they could not reach a resolution on this issue during the meeting.

It is worth mentioning that the Armenian side had stated the day before that the main topic of the negotiations was the issue of prisoners. However, there is no clear information about the Armenian prisoners in Azerbaijan. Two days ago, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry specifically stated that there are 62 Armenian soldiers there, whom Baku does not consider prisoners of war but rather terrorists, as they were captured after the ceasefire.

However, after the Moscow meeting, Pashinyan stated that no agreement had been reached and that the status of Nagorno-Karabakh remains one of the unresolved issues. “Of course, we generally succeeded in securing the ceasefire regime, but there are still many questions that need to be resolved. One of those questions is the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. Of course, Armenia is ready to continue negotiations within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship, particularly on this issue,” said Pashinyan.

Thus, it turns out that the goal for which Pashinyan went to Moscow was not accomplished, as he spoke about transport unblocking for the sake of returning prisoners, but only the first part was fulfilled. So what situation do we have after the meeting? The 'Zhoghovurd' newspaper spoke with Russian expert Stanislav Petritchin about the meeting. He deemed the meeting in Moscow highly significant: “The trilateral meeting was very important, taking place at the highest level. Besides that announcement, many other important issues were discussed, which were not publicly addressed. Additionally, we see that without Russian mediation, it is difficult to make progress on the issues, also referring to the points mentioned in the announcement, including transport routes and economic ties. Only through Russian mediation will it be possible to bring the parties to the negotiating table. Of course, resolving all issues requires great effort and extensive work, which the Russian side is ready for,” assured the expert.

Thus, it must be noted that Aliyev considers the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolved for himself, whereas we still face not only the issue of prisoners of war but also the status of Artsakh and several other uncertainties. After the war, we have a fractured domestic life and a lost homeland. This is noted by the 'Zhoghovurd' newspaper.