Baku urges Yerevan to decisive steps toward peace, advises against attempts to resurrect ineffective Minsk Group

By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

Baku has called on Yerevan to take decisive steps towards peace, rather than attempt to resurrect the already ineffective OSCE Minsk Group, Azernews reports.

In a response to the statements made by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's June 27 online presser, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry stressed that If Armenia truly desires peace, it must demonstrate political will and take genuine efforts toward peace, rather than waste time resurrecting the format of which the efficiency was always poor, and this has now been publicly admitted.

The ministry added that the process of normalizing the relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan called into question Armenia’s willingness to build long-term peace in the region.

"The leader of the nation that had occupied and destroyed part of Azerbaijani territories for over 30 years, who is now accusing Azerbaijan of conducting a policy of blockade throughout these years, does not fit into any legal or moral framework,” the statement reads.

The ministry adds that despite Armenia's decades-long scorched earth policy, following the liberation of its territories, Azerbaijan has been supportive of normalizing all-out relations between the two nations.

Namely, it was the Azerbaijan president, who proposed to sign a peace agreement based on strict adherence to the principles of international law in the post-conflict phase, the ministry recalls, adding that Azerbaijan even presented Armenia with the basic principles on which the agreement should be based, the ministry underlined.

“We remind PM Pashinyan that Azerbaijan has been a supporter and initiator of the normalization of relations between the two countries after the liberation of its territories, despite the aggressive policy and the approach of 'destroying everything' applied by Armenia for decades. The President of Azerbaijan proposed to sign a peace agreement based on strict adherence to the principles of international law in the post-conflict phase. The Azerbaijani side even presented to the other side the fundamental principles on which the agreement should be based. If Azerbaijan wanted a war, as Pashinyan claims, these steps would probably not be needed. If Azerbaijan wanted a fight, it would not have made great efforts to rebuild and restore the territories destroyed by Armenia for 30 years,” the statement reads.

Azerbaijan not only makes statements on the delimitation of borders between the two countries, calls for the opening of all communications in the region and the signing of a future peace agreement but is also implementing measures and decisive steps.

For many years, Azerbaijan has been calling for normalizing relations in the region and opening all communication lines that would benefit Armenia. The fact that Armenia has now realized this, as well as the prime minister's comment that "the opening of communications favors Armenia," draws attention to the Armenian leadership's new stance, the ministry added.

“It appears that Armenia will need some time to embrace the truth. We hope that Armenia will not have to wait long to realize the value of the Zangazur corridor, which has already become a reality,” the statement said.

As for the tripartite statements, the obligations assumed by the parties under this document and their implementation are obvious. Armenia, which grossly violates the terms of the document, sends sabotage forces to the territories of Azerbaijan, does not withdraw illegal armed groups from the territories of Azerbaijan, and delays the opening of communications for a long time and thus egregiously violates the implementation of these statements, the ministry stressed.

The Armenian prime minister, without elaborating on the specific situation, said that "Azerbaijan has boycotted the meeting at least once". If we start listing the meetings that have been proposed so far with the participation of international mediators in the post-conflict phase and disrupted by Armenia under various pretexts, as well as postponed by provocations 1-2 hours before, the list will be very long,” the statement concluded.