Press Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Aykhan Hajizadeh commented on the statements of Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan on the readiness to sign a peace agreement.
Mirzoyan said on September 9 that the parties had fully agreed on 13 of the 16 articles of the agreement. According to him, Armenia has handed over to Azerbaijan a fully agreed draft of the peace agreement and is awaiting Baku’s reaction.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said that “the Armenian side is once again pursuing the goal of distracting public opinion from the real situation.”
“The Armenian side responded to the latest comments submitted by Azerbaijan in June on the draft peace agreement and the establishment of interstate relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia at the end of August, approximately 70 days later. The Armenian side, instead of adequately responding to the comments submitted by Azerbaijan, tried to turn a blind eye to the problems, excluding from the draft provisions that needed to be reflected. Although many provisions on the draft have been agreed upon so far, i.e. about 80%, it is still not possible to reach an agreement on some provisions. However, this does not mean that the agreement should be signed, as proposed by the Armenian side, by removing uncoordinated provisions from the draft. This cannot be considered acceptable. Because for the peace agreement to be sustainable and successful, the draft must clarify problematic issues between the two countries in a number of areas.” – he said in Baku.
The Azerbaijani side still has many questions regarding this document.
“The fact that Armenia, which continues to pursue territorial claims against Azerbaijan, seeks to restore the work of the Minsk Group, which is a relic of the past conflict, demanding the signing of the text of a “peace agreement” in any way, reducing its scope, raises many questions about the true intentions of this country. In order to sign the draft agreement, Armenia must first make appropriate changes to its Constitution, which currently reflects territorial claims against our country.” – Aykhan Hajizadeh demanded.
He also said that Armenia, “aware of the existence of written and signed obligations on the issue of opening communications connecting the western regions of Azerbaijan with the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, has not fulfilled them over the past four years.”
“As for the statement on the participation of a foreign private company in the process on the territory of both countries, we note that Azerbaijan has never discussed the participation of a third party in the process on its territory. If the Armenian side is really interested in opening communications in the region, it must fulfill its obligations.” – said the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan.
