“Secretary of State Antony Blinken is hosting talks in Washington this week between Armenia’s Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, his latest effort to broker a peace agreement between the two countries. Mr. Blinken has prepared the parties to expect several days of hands-on American mediation. This plan represents a significant expansion of Washington’s role as a peace mediator that should be lauded. In November, Mr. Blinken also hosted Messrs. Mirzoyan and Bayramov, but at that time he did little more than welcome his guests and encourage them to engage each other directly,” reads the article.
The author points out that while fostering strong economic ties with Europe, to which Azerbaijan supplies oil and gas, President Ilham Aliyev has simultaneously developed deep and enduring defense ties with Turkey and Israel.
“Over the past decade or so, those ties helped the Azerbaijani military increase its power quietly but with remarkable speed. The power it revealed in the Second Karabakh War shocked many seasoned observers. Azerbaijan’s triangular alignment with Turkey and Israel especially terrifies Tehran, not least because of the support it has among Iranian Azerbaijanis, who constitute at least one-fifth of the country’s population and are the largest non-Persian ethnic group,” Michael Doran writes.
He notes that French President Emmanuel Macron has devoted significant energy to diplomacy in the South Caucasus, where his efforts clearly favor Armenia over Azerbaijan.
“The conflict won’t end until Armenia recognizes Karabakh as sovereign Azerbaijani territory. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan doesn’t sound ready to take that step. If Yerevan will only come around, the U.S. and its allies can work with it and Baku to safeguard the welfare of the Armenians of Karabakh. Unfortunately for Mr. Blinken, many influential friends of the Armenian-American community, such as Sen. Bob Menendez and Rep. Adam Schiff, refuse to urge Yerevan in this direction,” reads the article.
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