Merkel plotting surprise for Aliyev over Nagorno-Karabakh? – Regnum  

A columnist for the regional news agency Regnum has provided an extensive coverage of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's official visit to Germany and his meetings with the country's top officials.

“Pashinyan's visit was agenda was, all in all, rather busy and well-arranged,” Stanislav Tarasov says, highlighting the premier's carefully planned move to attract German political circles' attention to the democracy-building in Armenia (as a groundbreaking development in the South Caucasus).

Commenting on the news conference held jointly with Angela Merkel, Tarasov notes that the German chancellor voiced an overall positive evaluation of the December 9 snap eletions (as a truly democratic process in Armenia), promising  to expand the economic aid also to other areas.

“In that very context, Pashinyan addressed the prospects dealing with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. At the news conference, he elaborated on his vision of focusing multilateral – instead of bilateral – efforts on achieving a solution, and establishing a regional peace and stability,” he says.

Citing Pashinyan’s statement reaffirming that he negotiates on behalf of Armenia (vs. Nagorno-Karabakh), Tarasov notes that Chancellor Merkel highly appreciated his “bold” approach, agreeing that a final solution would be impossible under conditions of a unilateral willingness to act in good faith.

“Pashinyan, in turn, blamed on Merkel the new policy elements, including the return of Stepanakert to the negotiating table. Why especially in Berlin? Baku is apparently no longer in a capacity to use its gas roadmap according to its interests,” Tarasov says, highlighting Germany’s natural gas dependence upon Azerbaijan.

A striking moment, he says, is the democracy roadmap which Berlin is currently using against Baku. “Pashinyan has evidently put the stakes on Berlin in anticipation of a powerful assistance,” he says, predicting chances of risks in Pashinyan’s thesis ruling out negotiations on behalf of Artsakh.  

“Berlin never earlier treated Armenia as a major center in the Transcaucasus and never pursued a specific agenda for the country. The general impression was that Germany regarded Transcaucasus as a single region, where they are only currently making attempts to change the existing configuration. It remains to be seen where all that leads to, and whether it is worth at all awaiting new statements by Pashinyan and Merkel,” Tarasov adds.