Azeri President to Skip Armenia Peace Talks, Local Media Say

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has canceled plans to attend peace talks with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan after Baku’s military took control of the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region, local media reported Wednesday.

Aliyev won’t travel to Spain for Thursday’s scheduled talks at the European Political Community meeting because of France’s “destructive position” on the conflict, the pro-government Caliber news service reported, citing a person in the government it didn’t identify. Another reason is because Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won’t be there, Caliber reported.