PanARMENIAN.Net - Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Vahan Hunanyan has responded to Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov's remarks about recent proposals sent by Yerevan to Baku.
Bayramov said, in particular, that the Armenian side putting forward and added that Armenia has no legal, political or moral right to impose any conditions on the issue of delimitation of the borders. Bayramov also claimed that Armenia has undermined the activities of the trilateral working group.
Hunanyan reminded that the November 26, 2021 statement signed by the Prime Minister of Armenia, the Presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan clearly shows that the three leaders have agreed to undertake steps towards increasing the level of security and stability on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, and to lead the process to the formation of a bilateral commission on delimitation and demarcation.
"It derives from the statement signed by the leaders of the three countries that the activities of the commission on delimitation and demarcation should be preceded by the agreements on steps towards increasing the level of security on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and the implementation of those agreements. It is also logical amid the fact that it is difficult to imagine the implementation of delimitation in the borders where ceasefire violations are observed every day," Hunanyan noted.
"The Republic of Armenia, being really interested in the full implementation of the agreements, has formulated its notions for their implementation. The Azerbaijani side did not give any substantive response and rejected them, without offering any options for implementing the agreements reached by the leaders of the three countries.
According to the diplomat, describing Armenia's proposals as "conditions", "preconditions" and then making moral, political and legal assessments on them has no logical link to said process.
Hunanyan also weighed in on the the trilateral working group on unblocking regional communications.
"Ironically, on the same morning, Prime Minister [Nikol] Pashinyan announced at the Cabinet meeting that Armenia is in the stage of undertaking practical steps towards restoring the Yeraskh-Julfa-Ordubad-Meghri-Horadiz railway, and that the Armenian Co-Chair of the working group, Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan had a substantive discussion on this topic with his Russian counterpart, Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk, and Director General of “Russian Railways” Oleg Belozyorov on February 2 in Yerevan," he said.
"Assessing the situation, Prime Minister Pashinyan stated that the first results of the work of the Trilateral Working Group seem very close. In this context, the statements of the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan are at least paradoxical, and we hope that they do not mean Azerbaijan's renunciation of the agreements on the reopening of the railway reached in Brussels. I would like to note that the Republic of Armenia reaffirms its commitment to the agreements, which the Prime Minister publicly stated several times.
"It should be noted that Armenia has also made proposals to the Azerbaijani side on the opening of the roads. We have not received any response from the Azerbaijani side to these proposals yet. Armenia is ready to start implementing these proposals as soon as possible."