After a weekend visit to Armenia and Azerbaijan, the President of the European Council Charles Michel will attend the regional summit in Batumi, the Black Sea city of Georgia, on Monday (July 19). Closer. EURACTIV A report from Batumi.
Rear He worked personally to help resolve Georgia’s internal political crisisDescribed as risky by some, Michel accepted another challenge by involving the EU in a new mediation effort between Armenia and Azerbaijan to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Last fall, Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a war in Nagorno-Karabakh. This war claimed approximately 6,500 lives. Ceasefire facilitated by Russia Yerevan ceded the territory it had controlled for decades.
Since May, tensions have risen again-when Armenia accused the Azerbaijani army of crossing its southern border-both countries have reported occasional gun battles on their common border.
Michelle, who Saturday in Armenia,So-called Minsk Group “Taking responsibility and dealing with different themes of post-conflict resolution.” The OSCE Minsk Group was created by the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in 1992 and is co-chaired by France, Russia and the United States.
But since the ceasefire, the Minsk Group has basically had no activity. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev insisted that “the Karabakh conflict has been completely resolved” and rejected Yerevan’s call for negotiations on the political status of the region.
Honest Broker
In Azerbaijan, Michel went further, stating that the EU “in addition to the efforts of the Minsk Group, is also ready to play a constructive role as an honest intermediary between Azerbaijan and Armenia.”
The EU’s previous position has always been that it does not need to be repeated, and the appropriate institution for managing conflicts is the OSCE.
Speaking with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Michel said that the EU can provide expertise in issues including prisoner exchange and the availability of landmine maps. These issues have been partially resolved, but there is also the delineation of borders. For this reason, he Said “We are ready to provide European expert assistance and provide European monitoring when necessary and needed.”
He added that there is also the issue of armed forces close to the disputed area, which, in his words, should also be discussed.
Michel flew from Baku to Batumi and is expected to attend the meeting of the Presidents of Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova later on Monday. This meeting marked a reconciliation between the three countries, and the three countries have a common desire to join the European Union.
The summit was hosted by Georgian President Salome Zurabischvili and coincided with the annual Batumi International Conference, which was a climax of Georgia’s diplomatic agenda.
According to diplomats, what made the trio summit possible was the outstanding victory of the pro-European forces in Moldova last Sunday.
The diplomat told EURACTIV that Georgia launched the Associated Trio format in April last year, and that Charles Michel’s presence at such gatherings would be a great blessing.
So far, the “trio” initiative has been questioned in Brussels because it changed the pattern of relations with the six former Soviet republics of Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan.
Although Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia have signed alliance agreements with the European Union and are more ambitious in terms of integration and even future accession to the European Union, these six countries have come together in the so-called Eastern partnership.
Not an invention of Brussels
A diplomat said that another reason for the EU’s skepticism about the Trio initiative is that it was not an invention of Brussels. In his words, initiatives to maintain a pro-EU attitude in the region occur every five years, the most recent being a visa liberalization program. But the diplomat said that due to the lack of new initiatives in Brussels, the region proposed its own plan.
However, the Trio initiative also has its internal problems.Probably the biggest is Ukraine agrees to receive Mikhail Saakashvili, The former President of Georgia and the leader of the United National Movement of Georgia (UNM), the country’s main opposition force.
Saakashvili left Georgia in 2013 after his party lost a year in parliamentary elections and was prosecuted and sentenced in absentia in 2017 on allegations of abuse of public office and corruption. He now lives in Ukraine, which has no extradition agreement with Georgia. There, Saakashvili was very popular and still regarded as a pro-Western reformer.
UNM has consistently resisted international efforts led by Charles Michel to resolve the internal crisis in Georgia.
Diplomats said that Ukrainian President Zelensky’s visit to Batumi requires a lot of work, and the details of the plan are constantly changing every moment.
For example, the president will not be chaired by the reporter Rikard Jozwiak, but will only give speeches.
The climax of the meeting between the three presidents and Charles Michel is expected to be held at the Petra Fortress in southern Batumi.
In the 6th century, under the rule of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, Petra Fortress became an important outpost of Eastern Rome in the Caucasus. Due to its strategic location, it became the Lazik War between Rome and Sassanid Persia from 541 to 562 Battlefield. The ancient version of Iran today.
[Edited by Frédéric Simon]
