By Sabina Mammadli
Despite a mutual agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia to establish a working group by the end of April, the promised meeting of the delegations has not taken place yet, Azernews reports.
At a meeting with the Lithuanian president in Baku on May 18, President Ilham Aliyev said that Azerbaijan set up its working group on time and was ready to send out a delegation for the first meeting with Armenia.
The president added that Azerbaijan called on Armenia to embark on the process of delimitation of the border. He further added that even though it was the Armenian Foreign Ministry that proposed to hold the first meeting on the border issue, and though Azerbaijan accepted it, it was canceled at the last minute.
Aliyev stressed that even more disappointing than that was Armenia's refusal to hold another meeting on the border issue on 7-11 May, based on Armenia's initial proposal.
“We are waiting for new dates from Armenia to start work. Because such an irresponsible position, of course, is worrying,” the president stated.
Today Azerbaijan is focused on turning the South Caucasus into a region of peace, cooperation, and interaction. As President Aliyev mentioned, there is a single opportunity to create this format of cooperation after the second Karabakh war.
Furthermore, the president shared that as soon as the second Karabakh war ended, Azerbaijan started to openly come out in favor of the signing of a peace agreement and the establishment of a joint commission on the delimitation of borders. However, this was not welcomed by Armenia.
On the other hand, the situation in the region has changed positively since Armenia officially accepted the 5-point fundamental principles put forward by Azerbaijan to sign a peace agreement. These fundamental principles are based on international law, the UN Charter, the Helsinki Final Act, and good international practices.
Ilham Aliyev also emphasized Azerbaijan's permanent commitment to its obligations.
“If we promised, in the presence of the president of the European Council, that we were ready to meet by the end of April, we were committed to our word. However, we must see the same level of responsibility from Armenia. In other words, even though we have certain optimism, such maneuvers and fairly strange steps of the Armenian government actually undermine certain confidence,” he stated.
In the meantime, Secretary of the Armenian Security Council Armen Grigoryan said on May 19 that Armenia had formed a commission for the delimitation of the border with Azerbaijan.
"The composition of the commission is ready. The working group will make a relevant statement at the appropriate time," he added.
Earlier, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said that it was possible to start negotiations on the demarcation of the border with Azerbaijan in the near future.
“The meeting on the demarcation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, scheduled for May, has not yet taken place. But I can assure you that we will continue our discussions on organizing this meeting. There are some technical details that the parties must agree on. And I hope that the meeting will finally take place in the coming days or maybe weeks,” Mirzoyan noted.
The trilateral ceasefire deal, signed by the Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders with the mediation of the Russian president on November 10, 2020, ended the three-decade conflict over Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region, which along with the seven adjacent regions came under the occupation of the Armenian armed forces in the war in the early 1990s.
The deal also stipulated the return of Azerbaijan's Kalbajar, Aghdam and Lachin regions. Before the signing of the peace deal, Azerbaijan liberated 300 villages, settlements, city centers, and historical Shusha city that had been under Armenian occupation for about 30 years.