Azerbaijan reaffirms readiness for drafting peace deal with Armenia

By Azernews

Fatima Hasanova

Azerbaijan intends to draft and sign a peace agreement with Armenia as soon as possible, Azernews reports.

"Unlike Armenia, Azerbaijan supports conducting negotiations on a text of a peace agreement as soon as possible," Spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Ayxan Hajizada said.

In response to a question about Armenian FM Ararat Mirzoyan's statement about considering Azerbaijan's peace proposals, Hajizada stated that Azerbaijan presented those proposals 15 days ago.

Additionally, as Hajizada pointed out, and as can be seen from the Armenian FM's statement, Armenia is once again manipulating the peace negotiations process in order to mislead the international community by portraying itself as a constructive party.

“It was Armenia that, in violation of the agreed upon course of the peace agreement negotiation process, refused negotiations in December last year. Now, instead of returning to peace negotiations, it is artificially obstructing the process,” the spokesperson stressed.

On February 7, at a joint press conference with German Foreign Minister Annalena Burbock Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan stated that Armenia has received Azerbaijan's next proposals for a peace agreement and is working on the text.

“We were supposed to meet in Moscow with the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Russia, but due to the blocking of the Lachin corridor, the Armenian side postponed its participation. But, despite this, we passed our proposals to the Azerbaijani side and recently received new proposals on a peace treaty from Baku. We continue to work on the text,” said Mirzoyan.

This process has been ongoing for over a year. Throughout this time, Yerevan has repeatedly stated that the five points proposed by Baku are appropriate for Armenia.

The essence of Azerbaijan's proposals was mutual recognition of territorial integrity, renunciation of future territorial claims, demarcation of the border, and the signing of a peace treaty.

The Armenian side demanded that Karabakh be mentioned in the peace treaty and given a specific status, which Baku considers unacceptable.