By Burc Eruygur
ISTANBUL (AA) - Azerbaijan's president on Thursday pointed out the need to modernize the EU's Eastern Partnership initiative, launched in 2009 to foster ties between the bloc and several post-Soviet nations.
In a meeting with the EU's special envoy for the initiative, Ilham Aliyev said: "With respect to Eastern Partnership, you know that from the very beginning of this program Azerbaijan was very supportive and participated actively in different events, including summits."
"Now, I agree that it is time to modernize it, to review what has been done, because more than a decade has passed since the program was launched," he told Dirk Schuebel, according to a statement from Aliyev's office.
The Azerbaijani president received Schuebel to discuss the development of ties between his country and Brussels, as well as Baku's role in Europe's energy security and cooperation in transport and communication.
Highlighting that Azerbaijan is the only country in the Eastern Partnership, which also includes Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, not to have joined a political format under the program, Aliyev said his country needed to inspect new opportunities related to the Eastern Partnership.
"As far as we are concerned, we considered this platform not as a platform of cooperation between the member states but as an additional opportunity to enhance cooperation with the EU," Aliyev noted.
- Baku ready to talk to Armenians living in Karabakh
Aliyev and Schuebel also exchanged views on the normalization of Azerbaijan-Armenia relations and matters including a sought-after peace treaty between the two sides, border delimitation, and regional security.
Yerevan was "not sincere" in its messages of peace during the Armenian occupation of the Karabakh region that lasted nearly 30 years, Aliyev asserted.
He said Armenia's remarks on peace were "a kind of manipulation, because if they really wanted peace they would have responded to our proposal," referring to Azerbaijan's proposal for peace negotiations following the 44-day conflict in late 2020.
Aliyev stressed that Baku had offered peace despite the "devastation, destruction," and suffering that Armenians caused in Azerbaijan.
"We offered a kind of framework made up of five principles. It was us who advocated for establishing commissions on delimitation. It was us who were trying to find a ground for normalization of relations," he added.
Aliyev further indicated that his country has consistently pursued both normalization with Yerevan as well as efforts related to issues on Azerbaijan's Armenian minority.
Arguing that these two tracks should be kept separate from one another, Aliyev said Yerevan wanted to incorporate issues related to the Armenian minority into a peace agreement, which he said was "not possible."
"Armenia should openly declare what they want. If they want to talk about the rights and security of Armenians in Karabakh, it will not work. We are ready to talk about that with Armenians who live in Karabakh," he added.
Relations between the two ex-Soviet countries have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Upper Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.
A tripartite agreement was brokered by Russia to bring an end to the war in November 2020.
The cease-fire is seen as a victory for Azerbaijan and a defeat for Armenia, whose armed forces withdrew in line with the agreement.
Since then, Baku and Yerevan have conducted talks aiming to establish a peace agreement and a normalization of bilateral relations.