ArmInfo. Azerbaijan has been deprived of the opportunity to shoot at the border with Armenia and the Line of Contact with Artsakh for more than two years now.
Director of the Armenian Center for National and Strategic Studies Manvel Sargsyan expressed a similar opinion to ArmInfo. "Meanwhile, earlier Baku received quite good political dividends from such war games. However, Armenia's demand officially announced at the OSCE ministerial, for the introduction of appropriate mechanisms made each shot more relevant from the Azerbaijani side. As a result, Baku was forced to take a defensive position," he emphasized.
In this light, according to the analyst, a situation has developed in the negotiation process in which Baku has not even been asked for consent for the use of the above mechanisms. This state of affairs put Azerbaijan in a very difficult position, since in this case it is not so much about technical control over the situation at the border, but about changes in the very content of the negotiation process. Thus, according to Sargsyan, it was precisely the impossibility of further use of "military diplomacy" that put Baku in a situation, in which it could neither shoot nor negotiate. As a result, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has no choice but to present to Armenia and the co-chairs on the eve of the meeting of the Foreign Ministers in Bratislava an absolutely meaningless document.
On December 3, just a few hours before the start of the Bratislava meeting of the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani embassies in Austria, Slovakia and Slovenia posted on their Twitter an official statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan, which stated that "the settlement of the conflict is possible only with full respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan within its internationally recognized borders. " "Today, mediators are trying to make it clear to Baku that its proposals have absolutely nothing to do with negotiations. In response, Azerbaijan simply refuses to accept the negotiated agenda proposed by the parties. Moreover, demonstrating complete inability to give any explanation for its refusal. In this light, it seems rather important what kind of answer will come from Baku and whether there will be any, "Sargsyan summed up.
On December 4, in Bratislava, within the framework of the OSCE Ministerial Council, the fifth meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia Elmar Mammadyarov and Zohrab Mnatsakanyan on the settlement of the Karabakh conflict took place. Following the meeting, which lasted 3.5 hours, the ministers agreed to hold another meeting at the beginning of next year.