Monday, February 12 2024 12:25

ArmInfo. The implementation of the agreements already reached and the signing of a peace treaty  between Armenia and Azerbaijan is possible after the presidential elections in Azerbaijan if Baku has the political will. The Armenian authorities, as before, have this political will, Armenian Premier Nikol Pashinyan said in an interview with The Telegraph. 

"The principles of peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan have been  agreed upon in three international formats. The first took place in  2022. On October 6, during the quadrilateral meeting held in Prague,  which was attended by the President of France Emmanuel Macron, the  President of the European Council Charles Michel, the President of  Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and me, and we, after long discussions,  adopted a joint statement in which the following principle is  recorded: Armenia and Azerbaijan recognize each other's territorial  integrity based on the 1991 Declaration of Alma-Ata," 

"And of course, there is a very important nuance here that I want to  emphasize, the Alma-Ata declaration and the packages related to the  Declaration were ratified by the Armenian parliament in 1992, the  Azerbaijani parliament ratified it later. Many events took place  after the signing and ratification, but in this context it is very  important to record that in Prague on October 6, in the presence of  the President of France and the President of the European Council,  Armenia and Azerbaijan, in fact, after all those events, reaffirmed  that they recognize each other's territorial integrity on the basis  of the Alma-Ata Declaration.

"And the second important point is that the Alma-Ata declaration  should become the basis for the demarcation and delimitation of the  borders between the two countries. This is also a very important  principle, which in this context means that in the process of  demarcation between Armenia and Azerbaijan, no border has to be  created, but the borders confirmed and reaffirmed by the Alma-Ata  declaration should be expressed on the ground, on maps.

"The architecture and principles of the peace treaty between Armenia  and Azerbaijan have been agreed upon, and at the end of last year it  seemed to us that we were very close to finally agreeing on the text  of the final treaty, but from the beginning, Azerbaijan three times  refused to participate in negotiations in different formats, after  which presidential elections in Azerbaijan were scheduled. And, in  fact, we are still on this point, and I assume that after the  presidential elections, we will be able to achieve implementation of  these points, if there is political will. I can record that the  Armenian government, as before, has the political will to precisely  go for peace in our region and to sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan  based on the above-mentioned agreements," the Armenian premier said. 

"Azerbaijan, in fact, refused to participate in that meeting, where  in that context it was formulated that the next meeting would take  place at the end of October, in Brussels, in a trilateral format.  Azerbaijan again refused to participate in that meeting. And if we  add to this the events that took place in Nagorno Karabakh, first  military strikes were carried out against Nagorno Karabakh and, in  fact, Nagorno Karabakh was completely depopulated as a result of  ethnic cleansing. And simply, I answered your specific question,  focusing on the content of your question, but why did I interrupt  your question at the point you spoke about positiveness? Because when  we put these events side by side, in Armenia, for example, there are  analysts who believe that all this means that Azerbaijan is  retreating step by step and abandoning the agreements reached on  international platforms and between us," Mr Pashinyan said.