When Europe’s leaders gathered in Yerevan, Armenia, in May, the sharpest words about Europe’s view of the South Caucasus came from a leader who was not in the room.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, speaking by video link from Baku, used his allotted time at the European Political Community summit to rebuke the European Parliament for a resolution it had passed days earlier and accuse it of sabotaging his country’s peace process with Armenia.