Mirzoyan declares his willingness to sign  the peace agreement with  Azerbaijan  on  the border between Armenia-Azerbaijan or in a third  country

ArmInfo.Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan called the discussion with his Azerbaijani  counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov constructive during the panel discussion  "Challenges and Opportunities for Regional Cooperation in the South  Caucasus" on the sidelines of the diplomatic forum in Antalya.

"I would say that it was a constructive discussion. You know, we have  had many opportunities with my counterpart, Mr. Bayramov, to exchange  thoughts  behind closed doors, during negotiations, but also in open  public deliberations. So, this was another opportunity to exchange  thoughts.  Obviously,  there are differences in perception, and most  probably, we will now elaborate a little bit more on that as well.  But, also, it's an opportunity to make an attempt to bring the  positions closer. So, the discussions are always a good idea," the  Armenian minister said in an interview with Turkish NTV.  

Regarding the possible timing of the signing of a peace agreement  between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Mirzoyan hastened to emphasize that  the completion of negotiations on the draft peace treaty is an  unprecedented thing, a historic thing. According to him, Yerevan and  Baku agreed over the text of a draft agreement, a text in which the  parties mutually recognized each other's territorial integrity within   borders which existed  between them as Soviet republics at the moment  of dissolution  of the Soviet Union.

 "The parties agreed not to interfere in each other's internal  affairs and  several other very important things.  They also, in this  document, if ratified and entered into force, they also established a  bilateral commission which will oversee the implementation of the  agreement and  also handle  and manage the misinterpretations that  may arise, any concrete situations that may arise on the ground. So,  this is indeed a historic event. Now, we think that we can now  immediately start consultations to define the venue and the time, the  concrete date of signing the agreement," the chief diplomat of  Armenia added. 

When asked whether it is possible to sign the document in a third  country, Mirzoyan noted that it could be the border between Armenia  and Azerbaijan, it could be any other third country which could be  acceptable for the two countries. In this vein, the Armenian minister  drew attention to the fact that immediately after the announcement of  the fact of agreeing 0ver the text,  the Azerbaijani side came up  with several preconditions regarding the OSCE Minsk Group and the  Constitution. "There are several other ideas in the air, as I   understand the situation," the Armenian diplomat added.  Touching  upon the topic of the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group once again,  Mirzoyan noted that the Armenian side proposed to theAzerbaijani side  to sign the two documents on the same day: the peace agreement and  the joint application to OSCE or to its member states stating that  they initiate the process of dissolution of  the Minsk Group.

Touching upon the activities of the EU civilian mission in Armenia,  the Armenian minister once again reminded that the mandate of the  mission, as well as its ultimate goal, is to support the stability  and peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan. According to him, if the  peace agreement is signed, the demarcation process continues and  stability is achieved as a result of all this, then there will be no  need for a monitoring mission.  Speaking about the demand of the  Azerbaijani side to amend the Constitution of Armenia, Mirzoyan once  again reiterated that the country's main law does not contain any  territorial claims against territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

"In parallel, we do think  that they, we have concerns, we do think  that they have claims in their constitution. The Constitution of  Azerbaijan expresses a claim to more than 60% of today's  sovereign  territories and  recognized territories of Armenia. Is this a  problem? But in the agreed peace agreement, which we suggest to sign,  there is a solution to this issue. First, we, as I said,   recognize  each other's territorial integrity within the borders that I   mentioned. And this  formulation, this solution is acceptable for two  countries, otherwise we couldn't agree over the text," he noted.