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Azerbaijan Leader to Skip EU-led Talks with Armenia

by VOA News

   Azerbaijan's president, Ilham Aliyev, will not participate in talks
   this week with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Spain.

   Azerbaijani state media and a government official said Wednesday that
   Aliyev would skip the EU-brokered meeting that also includes the
   leaders of France and Germany, citing what they described as
   pro-Armenian statements from France and EU Council President Charles
   Michel.

   The EU said the talks would be aimed at advancing long-running peace
   negotiations between Azerbaijan and Armenia as well as the situation in
   the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

   Last month, Azerbaijan carried out an operation to retake control of
   Nagorno-Karabakh from ethnic Armenian separatists.

   Nagorno-Karabakh is entirely within Azerbaijan but had been under
   ethnic Armenian control since 1994, until parts of it were reclaimed by
   Azerbaijan during a war in 2020.

   Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and
   Reuters