Baku could lay territorial claims to Armenia - premier

ArmInfo.Baku plans to sign a peace agreement with points that would later serve as loopholes for  questioning the borders defined by the Almaty declaration, Armenia's Premier Nikol Pashinyan stated at a Cabinet meeting on Thursday. 

Pashinyan pointed out that today Azerbaijan, which, in violation of  paragraph 6 of the Trilateral Statement of November 9, 2020,  illegally blocked the Lachin corridor, does not allow the  humanitarian convoy sent from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh on July 26  to pass. The head of government recalled that the RA authorities  decided to send humanitarian aid to NK after the ICRC announced on  July 25 that it was impossible to deliver humanitarian cargo to the  residents of Artsakh and called on the authorities of Azerbaijan and  Armenia to take measures to resume its humanitarian operations in the  region.

"Azerbaijan persistently continues to insist that the reason for  blocking the Lachin corridor is, in its wording, the military  provocation of the Armenian side on June 15. Then a group of  servicemen of the border service of Azerbaijan made an attempt to  advance in the direction of the Khakari bridge in order to plant a  flag on the territory of the Republic of Armenia. It is the  above-mentioned actions of Azerbaijan that are a provocation,  especially in those conditions when delimitation and demarcation work  between both countries is still at the starting stage," he said. 

According to Pashinyan, Baku's behavior willfully and often - with  the use of force to set its flags in certain areas, is similar to  attempts to disrupt the peace process. This is evidenced by the  recent statements of the President of Azerbaijan, in particular, to  the Euronews TV channel, in which, despite assurances that there are  no territorial claims against the Republic of Armenia, Ilham Aliyev  notes that the borders between the Republic of Armenia and the  Republic of Azerbaijan are not defined.

Meanwhile, the head of the Cabinet recalled, the borders between  Armenia and Azerbaijan were determined according to the Alma-Ata  Declaration of 1991, which was confirmed at the quadripartite meeting  on October 6 in Prague, during which the Alma-Ata Declaration was  adopted as the basis for the delimitation of borders.

"One gets the impression that Baku's plan is to sign a peace treaty  with clauses that leave loopholes for challenging the borders fixed  by the Alma-Ata Declaration. And then, already in the process of  delimitation and demarcation, to present territorial claims to  Armenia. If the borders between the two countries are not defined,  then what sections of the border is Azerbaijan talking about?"  Armenia's premier said, noting that if such issues are raised, then  the borders are defined.

At the same time, as Pashinyan emphasized, Armenia's proposal for a  mirror withdrawal of troops from this line remains in force. The  delimitation and demarcation of the border testify not to the absence  of a border, but, on the contrary, to the reflection "on the ground"  of the administrative borders of the USSR at the time of the  collapse, he added. The RA Prime Minister also reaffirmed Yerevan's  adherence to early agreements on mutual recognition of each other's  territorial integrity. "We are waiting for public confirmation of  these agreements from Baku," he said.

According to the Armenian Prime Minister, despite all the  difficulties, today there is a real opportunity to achieve a  long-term and lasting peace. In this context, Pashinyan called on  Baku to refrain from actions aimed at leveling this opportunity. For  this, as the prime minister pointed out, the Azerbaijani side should  not torpedo the process of the Stepanakert-Baku dialogue within the  framework of international mechanisms, not block the Lachin corridor,  not kidnap the inhabitants of Nagorno-Karabakh and return all  captured detainees, as well as let the humanitarian convoy to  Nagorno-Karabakh pass.