No tangible results have been achieved in relations between Baku and Yerevan since the 44-day war over the Karabakh region in 2020, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said on Monday.
“Even though certain steps towards the normalization of Azerbaijan-Armenia relations were taken in the first six months of this year, unfortunately, there are no tangible results yet. Although a year and eight months have passed since the Patriotic War, unfortunately, Armenia has yet to fulfill the obligations it was forced to take upon itself,” he said during an evaluative meeting.
Aliyev said that the first meeting of working groups on delimitation was a positive development, but that it was only possible thanks to Azerbaijan.
“The Armenian side was not particularly inclined to do this. However, the first meeting was held. Of course, this meeting was more of an introductory nature. A second meeting is scheduled for next month. I believe that the second meeting will be devoted to the discussion of specific issues,” he said, indicating that although no quick results are expected, the process starting is a success in itself.
Touching on what he described as another positive development, Aliyev also highlighted that Armenia officially accepted the five basic principles that will form the basis of a peace treaty, adding that the issue was also discussed with several neighboring countries including Türkiye, Russia and Iran as well as the European Union and the United States.
“Again, Azerbaijan put forward the initiative, we are the ones who developed these five principles, and if we had not taken this initiative upon ourselves, there would have been no progress in this direction to this day.”
Furthermore, according to Aliyev, the foreign ministers of the two countries are set to meet tomorrow.
“This will be the first meeting between the ministers and we look forward to the meeting producing results. I have had several meetings with the prime minister of Armenia, representatives of Azerbaijan and Armenia have also had a meeting. But there hasn’t been a meeting between foreign ministers, this will be the first such meeting,” he elaborated, noting that Baku’s expectation from the meeting is that Yerevan establishes its own working group for the preparation of the peace treaty.
He went on to say that although a year and eight months have passed since the war, no other positive developments have been recorded.
Relations between the former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military illegally occupied Karabakh, previously referred to as Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.
Clashes erupted on Sept. 27, 2020, with the Armenian Army attacking civilians and Azerbaijani forces and violating several humanitarian cease-fire agreements.
During the 44-day conflict, Azerbaijan liberated several cities and around 300 settlements and villages that had been occupied by Armenia for almost 30 years.
The fighting ended with a Russian-brokered agreement on Nov. 10, 2020, which was seen as a victory for Azerbaijan and a defeat for Armenia.
In January 2021, the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a pact to develop economic ties and infrastructure to benefit the entire region. It also included the establishment of a trilateral working group in Karabakh.
After the conflict ended, Azerbaijan launched a massive reconstruction initiative in the liberated Karabakh region.
Aliyev said that Yerevan refuses to address the issues identified in the declaration signed on Nov. 10, 2020, which represents an act of capitulation for Armenia as the defeated side in the war which bears certain obligations.
“One of them is the withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from Karabakh. This issue has not been resolved to this day. We have raised this issue many times, but Armenia keeps delaying it,” the president said, adding that Russia had promised a few months ago that the Armenian Armed Forces would withdraw from Karabakh by June.
“It is the middle of August now, but this issue has not been resolved yet. It is completely unacceptable for Armenian armed forces to remain on the territory of Azerbaijan. We are a victorious country and we have restored our territorial integrity.”
Moreover, according to the Nov. 10 declaration, contact was to be established between Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan, which Armenia also agreed to but there is still no progress.
“The Lachin road is open, and we made a commitment in the declaration of Nov. 10 that the Lachin road would work and that Azerbaijan guarantees the safety of that road. But we do not have the opportunity to go to Nakhchivan from the main part of Azerbaijan,” he emphasized.
The Azerbaijani president also said that a feasibility study is needed for the railway to be built in the Mehri section of the Zangezur corridor and that the Armenian side has to provide a route within this context.
Aliyev said he raised this issue many times, including three times during meetings with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian the president of the Council of Europe, Charles Michel. “Work in this direction has not been carried out, the feasibility study has not been prepared – Armenia does not want to fulfill this obligation, but it does not admit that.”
He said that if Azerbaijan is implementing the articles of the declaration, the same is expected of the Armenian side.
Aliyev also criticized the Armenian side for bringing up the issue of the status of Karabakh, saying that a verbal agreement had been reached following the war that its status is not open to discussion. “We can also start talking about status, we can demand status for Zangezur, the Zangezur that was severed from us in November 1920.”
He said that attempts are still being made “to revive the now-defunct Minsk Group.”
“The Minsk Group has now left the stage. We, a country participating in this process, are saying that there is no need for the Minsk Group. There is no need for a group that has not produced any result in 28 years.”
He said that on one hand, Armenia accepts and acknowledges the five principles, including the mutual recognition of territorial integrity, the relinquishment of territorial claims against each other and other provisions, but on the other hand, “it seems that the Minsk Group needs to be kept busy.”
Prior to the 2020 war, diplomats from France, Russia and the United States – the so-called Minsk Group working under the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) – had for decades led fruitless negotiations to resolve the Karabakh issue.
Aliyev has frequently emphasized that although the Minsk Group was active for years, it failed to achieve any concrete results that would bring peace to the region.