On 16 July 2022 the first bilateral meeting between the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia took place in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. It lasted for three hours and the sides did not give any specific details about the topics of the meeting, except that Azerbaijan once again reminded Armenia about compliance with the agreements on the withdrawal of Armenian armed formations from Karabakh territory. There was also a very quick reaction to the meeting from the US.

"Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan have taken a positive step by meeting in Tbilisi today. Direct dialogue is the surest way to resolve differences between Azerbaijan and Armenia," said US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.

It then became clear that the significance of starting a direct dialogue between Azerbaijan and Armenia far exceeded the 'regional framework' and was of global significance.

The fact is that Azerbaijani Karabakh is now one of the zones of 'active presence' of Russian troops outside the Russian Federation proper. Their presence is conditioned by the November 2020 agreement on the outcome of the 44-day war and is limited to 5 years. However, under the guise of Russian peacekeepers on Azerbaijani territory, unscathed Armenian separatists, terrorists and revanchists are entrenched, which, incidentally, pose a problem not so much for Baku as for Yerevan.

After all, sooner or later the Azerbaijani legal framework will be extended to the whole territory of the country, including Khankendi. Apart from the prospect of ending up in the dock, the 'Artsakh' separatists have no other prospects in Azerbaijan. The same "Artsakh" separatists (those same illegal Armenian armed formations) are a different matter for the Republic of Armenia itself. Pashinyan's government is forced not only to tolerate them, but also to supply them and give them opportunities to influence Armenian policy. Although the revanchists from the 'Karabakh clan', protected by Russian peacekeepers in Khankendi, do not even hide their intention to change power in Yerevan and to overthrow the current government.

Not only does the Russian Federation not comply with the terms of the peace agreement, not disarming the separatist gangs, but it clearly patronises them. But as long as the 5-year period since the November 2020 trilateral agreement on the presence of Russian troops in Karabakh has not expired, it has some "peacekeeping legitimacy". What cannot be said for the presence of the Russian army on Georgian territory in Abkhazia and the Tskhivali region and especially in Ukraine, where the Russian Federation is now waging war and intervention.

Both in Ukraine and Georgia, Russia uses separatists as a pretext for aggression and occupation. And the separatist movements in the post-Soviet space began with the same "Artsakh".

For the U.S. it is extremely undesirable that Russia through its "peacekeepers" in Karabakh and support of separatists and revanchists still "aims" the region of Southern Caucasus.  Nor is it desirable for the US that pro-Russian revanchists come to power in Yerevan using the Russian peacekeepers' area of responsibility in Azerbaijan's Karabakh as a 'base'.

  But as long as there is no peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan and no direct dialogue, Russia's role as the "main divider" in the region persists. Which by and large no longer suits not only the US, but also Pashinyan's government, which, remember, originally came to power in Yerevan with American support.

It is no coincidence that on the eve of the Armenian Foreign Minister's trip to Tbilisi, CIA Director William Burns arrived in Yerevan for a meeting with the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister. Washington, as the "main sponsor" of the Pashinin regime in Yerevan, is clearly pushing the Armenian authorities towards direct dialogue with Azerbaijan without involving the Russian side in this dialogue. This, in fact, destroys the scheme for maintaining Russia's geopolitical influence in the post-Soviet space through separatist conflicts, which was established under the influence of the most influential Armenian lobby in Russia.

Therefore, eliminating the foci of separatism in the post-Soviet space is imperative for the US. And precedent for such liquidation is important.  And the first in line for liquidation is the "Artsakh" hearth.

Basically, the separatist "Artsakh" was liquidated by the Azerbaijani army during the 44-day war. But the final liquidation of the hotbed of separatism itself will occur when the separatists are not at ease under the protection of Russian peacekeepers, but find themselves in the dock.

Not only Azerbaijan but also Georgia is interested in eliminating this hotbed today (because the next in line will be separatist hotbeds in Abkhazia and Samachablo) and, to some extent, the current Armenian government itself. After all, Pashinyan has not the slightest chance today to put "his staff" at the head of the separatists in Khankendi. In fact, he is forced to violate peace agreements and question Armenia's much-needed peace settlement with its neighbours, while supporting his political opponents on foreign soil, who are only dreaming of overthrowing him.

It was also important information that the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Ceyhun Bayramov noted that all efforts should be directed towards making progress in the regulation of inter-state relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, based on the post-conflict realities that have arisen since the resolution of the armed conflict between the two states. In this context, the need to implement all the provisions of the trilateral statements signed by the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia, in particular the withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from Azerbaijani territory, was stressed. In other words, it is again about the final liquidation of the remnants of the "Artsakh" separatist hotbed.

Kavkazplus