European Diplomacy Will Try to Convince Baku to Return Several Prisoners: Will Azerbaijan Make Concessions?

There has been no significant progress, despite some agreements to begin delimitation and demarcation work. In any case, this implies recognition of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity, which is not advantageous for Armenia. This was stated by political scientist and senior researcher at the Caucasus Institute, Hrant Mikayelyan, in an interview with 24News regarding the trilateral meeting held in Sochi on Friday.

According to Mikayelyan, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan primarily attempted to use the meeting as a platform for domestic propaganda in Armenia.

The political scientist believes that Azerbaijan will not undertake any military action before the Brussels trilateral meeting. “It's also unlikely that Azerbaijan will take any steps during the Brussels meeting. Certainly, European diplomacy wants to achieve some results and will try to convince Azerbaijan to return a few prisoners, but it is a serious question whether Azerbaijan will make concessions. I still do not see such willingness,” he emphasized.

Regarding the Brussels meeting itself, Hrant Mikayelyan stated, “Currently, more attention is being given to the format rather than substantive issues, and thus, there is a competition over who and how will resolve this conflict.”

According to him, there is the Minsk Group format for the resolution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, discussions about the 3+3 format are ongoing, and now there’s also the European format. “Unfortunately, we lack an agenda on almost all platforms. Our main task is to engage with the agenda,” Mikayelyan concluded.