The situation that has been created in the process of normalizing of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations over the past year can be conditionally called a “war of platforms,” political scientist Gagik Keryan told Armenian News NEWS.am.

He reminded that after the end of the 2020 war, the negotiations were mainly carried out in a tripartite—Armenia-Azerbaijan-Russia—format.

"There were even several meetings in Moscow, Sochi, it was emphasized that the negotiation process can be completed only in this format. But everything turned upside down in February 2022, when the Russian Federation launched a full-scale war in Ukraine and got stuck in rather complex political and economic problems. In this case, the attention of the Russian leadership is mostly focused on Ukraine.

Taking advantage of this situation, the West was able to seize the initiative of negotiations and took it to Western platforms.

Until now, the West has managed to keep the settlement process under its control, but not completely because [Azerbaijani president] Aliyev, entering into strategic cooperation with the Russian Federation and being able to take advantage of the situation to ‘resolve’ the Artsakh [i.e. Nagorno-Karabakh] issue, somehow has obligations towards [Russian president] Putin, and many times he does not act independently, but at the behest of Moscow and Ankara. One of the proofs of this was the fact that Aliyev did not go to Granada, and the other day, appearing side by side with [Armenian PM] Pashinyan in London, the Western leaders did not succeed in getting them to sit at the negotiating table even for half an hour," Keryan said.

According to him, it can be concluded from this that the West has managed to completely bring Pashinyan to Western formats, and partially Aliyev, but we cannot say that they have reached the conclusion of a peace treaty