The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan are meeting in Berlin on Wednesday to try to resolve the conflict which has opposed these two Caucasian countries for several decades over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
These peace talks will take place, under the aegis of Germany, until Thursday immediately.
They take place at Villa Borsig, a residence of German diplomacy on the outskirts of Berlin.
The heads of Armenian diplomacy Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani Jeïhoun Baïramov will be welcomed by their German counterpart Annalena Baerbock.
The latter will meet with the two ministers during bilaterals and then a trilateral.
The meeting was decided during a meeting in Munich on February 17 between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Iham Aliyev.
Unstable situation
Territorial disputes oppose Armenia and Azerbaijan, who fought two wars, in the 1990s and in 2020, for control of the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, finally reconquered in September 2023 by the forces of Baku.
For several months, several rounds of negotiations led separately by Russia, the European Union and the United States took place with the aim of a comprehensive peace treaty, with few results at this stage.
The situation remains unstable and armed incidents still occur regularly.
Armenia and Azerbaijan often accuse each other of shootings on their border.
Since the reconquest of Nagorno-Karabakh, Yerevan suspects Azerbaijan of having other territorial ambitions to the detriment of Armenia, which Baku disputes.
Armenia believes its powerful neighbor is seeking to control Armenia's Siounik region to connect the Azerbaijani enclave of Nakhichevan to the rest of Azerbaijan.
French President Emmanuel Macron recently spoke of a
“risk of escalation”
between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Armenia-West rapprochement
Alliances in the Caucasus have evolved over the course of this conflict.
Armenia's long-standing ties with Russia have weakened since Azerbaijan, its historic enemy, seized the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in September.
Yerevan criticizes the Russian government for not intervening to stop Azerbaijan's lightning offensive against this disputed territory, controlled for decades by Armenian separatists.
Azerbaijan reconquered the enclave by forcing some 100,000 Armenians into exile.
Furthermore, Armenia's accession to the International Criminal Court has fueled tensions with Moscow, with Yerevan now required to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin, the subject of an arrest warrant, if he were to surrender. in the country.
Armenia has thus accelerated its rapprochement with Western partners in recent months, led by the United States and France, with their large Armenian communities.
Also on the European level, the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell assured that the EU wants to implement an
“ambitious”
plan to strengthen its ties with Armenia, including, among other things, discussions on visa liberalization towards the EU.
But this policy risks angering Moscow, which attacked Ukraine at a time when kyiv was intensifying its rapprochement with the EU.
Russia still has thousands of troops stationed at several military bases in Armenia.