EU attempts to establish peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia, negotiations held in Brussels

(Patria) - The European Union called on Azerbaijan and Armenia to refrain from "violence and harsh rhetoric" on Saturday in the latest round of negotiations in a painstaking peace process in which Russia also seeks to maintain a leading role, Reuters reports.

EU Council President Charles Michel hosted Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for talks in Brussels aimed at drawing a line under more than three decades of hostilities.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the two countries have fought two wars over Nagorno-Karabakh, a small mountainous enclave that is part of Azerbaijan but is home to about 120,000 ethnic Armenians.

Armenia says a proposed peace treaty should ensure special rights for them and guarantee their safety. Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov dismissed this demand in an interview with Reuters in June, saying it was unnecessary and interfered in Azerbaijan's affairs.

"Real progress depends on the next steps that will need to be taken in the near future. As a priority, violence and harsh rhetoric must stop to ensure a proper environment for peace and normalization negotiations," Michel said. He said he expressed the EU's encouragement for Azerbaijan to engage directly with the Karabakh Armenians to build trust between the parties.

In addition to the EU, the United States is also encouraging the parties to reach a peace agreement.

Russia, the traditional mediator in the region, busy with the war in Ukraine, risks its influence diminishing. Russia announced on Saturday that it is ready to organize a trilateral meeting with Armenia and Azerbaijan at the level of foreign ministers. This could be followed by a summit in Moscow to sign a peace agreement, the statement said, adding that an integral part of this agreement should be "reliable and clear guarantees of the rights and security of Armenians in Karabakh" and the implementation of previous agreements between Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.