“Although high-ranking U.S. and EU officials tried to convince us during telephone conversations initiated by them in recent days that this meeting is not directed against us, we know that it is against Azerbaijan, against cooperation in the South Caucasus,” Aliyev said. “It aims to create dividing lines and isolate Azerbaijan.”
“We never felt it was our business to convince Azerbaijan about the conference,” James O’Brien, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, said, commenting on Aliyev’s claims. “We have been very clear about what we intended to do. We have done exactly as we said.”
“We are supporting the choices that the Armenian people have made and will continue to do that in a way that promotes peace and security and prosperity of the region as a whole,” O’Brien told Armenian journalists.
Aliyev made the claims when he received Turkey’s former Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. Ankara has also criticized European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and U.S. Secretary of State Antony for deciding to jointly meet Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in Brussels.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said last week that the Western powers are thus demonstrating their pro-Armenian position and encouraging Yerevan to take “destabilizing actions” in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict zone.
U.S. and EU officials countered that the meeting will focus on Western support for political and economic reforms in Armenia. Blinken and von der Leyen reiterated those assurances in separate phone calls with Aliyev earlier this week.
The calls followed the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry’s claims that Armenia is massing troops along its border with Azerbaijan in possible preparation for “military provocations” there. The Armenian military dismissed them. An EU monitoring mission deployed on the Armenian side of the frontier likewise denied any Armenian military buildup there.
The Defense Ministry in Yerevan on Friday described as “disinformation” Baku’s claims that the Armenian army again violated the ceasefire. It said Azerbaijani forces themselves opened fire at Armenian positions at two border sections. Armenian officials and pundits have suggested that the Azerbaijani side is heightening tensions on the border in response to the Brussels talks.
According to the U.S. State Department, Blinken also told Aliyev on Wednesday that “there is no justification for increased tension on the border” and warned against “aggressive actions and rhetoric from any side.”