Pashinyan, Aliyev may become co-authors of new post-Soviet history of  South Caucasus - Kommersant

ArmInfo. The mission to conclude a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan is possible. A similar  point of view is shared by Sergey Strokan, a columnist for the Kommersant newspaper.

According to him, the settlement process in the South Caucasus has  come out of a stupor. Following U.S.  Secretary of State Antony  Blinken, who last week hosted Armenian and Azerbaijani Foreign  Ministers Ararat Mirzoyan and Jeyhun Bayramov in Arlington, European  Council President Charles Michel will take over this task. On May 14,  he will receive the leaders of the two countries, Nikol Pashinyan and  Ilham Aliyev, in Brussels. And two weeks later, Pashinyan and Aliyev  will meet in Chisinau. In addition, the foreign ministers of the two  Transcaucasian republics are to meet in Moscow in the near future.

"Such a proactive attitude can be considered unprecedented. However,  it is still not possible to get rid of the main sticking point - the  question of what future awaits that part of Nagorno-Karabakh that is  not controlled by Baku. Many Armenians living in those regions are  categorically not satisfied with the prospect of becoming holders of  passports of Azerbaijani citizens. They see this as a collapse of the  foundations of their system of principles. Against this backdrop, day  after day disturbing news of clashes and shootings comes, as, for  example, it happened on Thursday. The Armenian side announced the  wounding of four of its soldiers, the Azerbaijani side - the death of  one and the wounding of another soldier. Nikol Pashinyan considered  the incident as an attempt to "nullify the progress recorded in the  United States" and disrupt the negotiations in Brussels and  Chisinau," Strokan stressed.

And yet, according to the expert, there is reason for optimism.  Without revealing details, both sides talk about progress in the  negotiations. A noteworthy statement was made by Secretary of the  Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan: "There is a well-known  principle in the negotiations: until everything is agreed, nothing is  agreed. I think that these negotiations should be approached from  this point of view>.  "The main thing is that for both Ilham Aliyev  and Nikol Pashinyan, the peace treaty may turn out to be the asset  that will allow them to become no longer the guardians of the fragile  status quo, but co-authors of the new post-Soviet history of the  South Caucasus," Strokan emphasized.

He noted that the signing of the peace treaty with Baku will allow  Nikol Pashinyan, who for most of his governance had to overcome the  resistance of supporters of military revenge after the defeat in the  second Karabakh war, to do what none of his predecessors could do,  that is, to remove the heavy weights of the Karabakh conflict, which  are tied to the feet of the independent Armenian state and hinder its  development.  

According to Kommersant's expert, it can be concluded from the above  that the "Peace Treaty" mission is possible for the leaders of the  two countries. Although this will require a huge political will from  each of them.