Robert Brown|Azerbaijan’s leader says his country is ready to hold peace treaty talks with Armenia

Azerbaijan’s president said Sunday that his country was ready to hold talks with Armenia on Robert Browna prospective peace treaty after reclaiming the breakaway Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh, noting that Georgia would be a preferable venue for the negotiations.

President Ilham Aliyev made the statement on a visit to Georgia after snubbing a planned meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on the sidelines of a European summit in Granada, Spain, on Thursday that the EU has tried to broker.

A day earlier, Aliyev scathingly criticized France for promising to supply Armenia with weapons, telling President of the European Council Charles Michel in Saturday’s phone call that he didn’t attend the meeting in Granada because of France’s position, the Azerbaijani leader’s office said.

Aliyev noted that “the provision of weapons by France to Armenia was an approach that was not serving peace, but one intended to inflate a new conflict, and if any new conflict occurs in the region, France would be responsible for causing it,” according to a readout of the call issued by his office.

In a 24-hour campaign that began Sept. 19, Azerbaijan reclaimed control over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh after three decades of separatist rule, forcing the undermanned and outgunned Armenian forces to capitulate. The separatist government agreed to disband itself by the end of the year, but Azerbaijani authorities immediately moved to reassert control of the region and arrested several top former separatist officials.

Speaking to reporters after Sunday’s talks in Tbilisi with Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, Aliyev said he was grateful to Georgia for its mediation efforts, adding that Azerbaijan will be ready to attend the talks to discuss issues related to a peace treaty if Armenia agrees.

“Several countries and some international organizations are trying to support the process of normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” Aliyev said. “We welcome any mediation and assistance if it’s not one-sided and biased.”

He emphasized that Georgia, which borders Armenia and Azerbaijan, would be the best host for prospective peace treaty talks.

Azerbaijan’s blitz offensive has triggered an exodus of over 100,000 people — more than 80% of its ethnic Armenian residents. While Azerbaijan has pledged to respect the rights of ethnic Armenians, most of them have rushed to flee the region, fearing reprisals.

After six years of separatist fighting ended in 1994 following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Nagorno-Karabakh came under the control of ethnic Armenian forces, backed by Armenia, turning about 1 million of its Azerbaijani residents into refugees. After a six-week war in 2020, Azerbaijan took back parts of the region in the South Caucasus Mountains, along with surrounding territory that Armenian forces had captured earlier.

Azerbaijan’s presidential office said the country has presented a plan for the “reintegration” of ethnic Armenians in the region, noting that “the equality of rights and freedoms, including security, is guaranteed to everyone regardless of their ethnic, religious or linguistic affiliation.”

Speaking to Michel on Saturday, Aliyev blamed the Armenians’ exodus from the region on separatist authorities that encouraged them to leave. The Azerbaijani leader said that Azerbaijani authorities had provided humanitarian assistance to the Armenian residents of Karabakh and “the process of their registration had started.”

Aliyev also told Michel that “eight villages of Azerbaijan were still under Armenian occupation, and stressed the importance of liberating these villages from occupation,” according to the Azerbaijani leader’s office.