Author: Jane Topchian

Armenia’s Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan has reacted to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s statement that Armenia “is not sincere” in the process of achieving peace.

“The Armenian government has repeatedly proved its readiness to make efforts for the establishment of long-term stability and peace in the South Caucasus. At the same time, it is obvious that these efforts cannot be one-sided, and Azerbaijan must also take active and sincere steps in this direction. The establishment of peace cannot come as a result of the efforts of one side only, and peace negotiations cannot be based on the proposals of one side only,” Mirzoyan said on Friday in response to a request for comment from Armenpress.

“It is also obvious that for the success of these efforts, it is necessary to address the whole set of existing problems that have caused the conflict in order to find a solution acceptable to all parties. In this context, the statements made by official Baku about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict being settled are at least not understandable or, moreover, put under doubt the sincerity of the intention of the authorities of Azerbaijan to achieve peace. Whatever statements are made, the Nagorno-Karabakh issue continues to exist until adequate guarantees for the issues of the security of the Armenians of Artsakh and protection of all their rights, and the status of Nagorno-Karabakh arising from it are not addressed. In the modern world, the situation created as a result of use of force cannot be a solution to a problem.

“The assertion that as a result of the use of force there is no Nagorno-Karabakh at all, does not speak about the constructiveness of Azerbaijan. Needless to say that this, indeed, does not correspond to the factual reality, the most important part of which is the existence of Armenians in Artsakh as well as the presence of Russian peacekeeping forces to ensure their security, or the November 9 trilateral statement, which stopped the war and clearly defines the existence of Nagorno-Karabakh.

“The same can be said about the statements of the Azerbaijani authorities on the non-existence of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship. First of all, no one has suspended it and without the relevant decision of the international institution defining it, they cannot suspend the international mandate of the co-chairmanship, that is, to contribute to the political settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In that case, it is incomprehensible that if the parties really want to negotiate sincerely, to find mutually acceptable solutions, to achieve a lasting and sustainable peace, then why should not those talks take place in the format of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship, which has the clear support of the international community, and non-use of the experience and potential of which is simply illogical and unreasonable,” the minister said.

Commenting on Aliyev’s claims that the Armenian side is delaying the process of unblocking the region, Mirzoyan stressed Armenia has always been interested in opening all the transport and economic infrastructures in the region.

“This is evidenced by both the trilateral statements adopted by the Russian mediation on January 11 and November 26, 2021 as well as the agreements reached in Brussels,” he said.

“I would like to emphasize that Armenia has been involved in the discussions in good faith, and the process would have been much smoother and faster if Azerbaijan would not have come up with statements on the extraterritorial corridor, which are not in line with the tripartite statement of November 9, 2020 as well as with the commitments made by the statements I mentioned.

“As for Azerbaijan's efforts to draw parallels between the Lachin corridor and the regional transport routes to be unblocked, they obviously cannot have the same status, at least coming from the provisions of the trilateral declaration signed on November 9, 2020, which clearly define the status of the Lachin corridor. Moreover, Nagorno-Karabakh and the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic have different statuses, different neighborhoods, and different security environments. Accordingly, their relations with Armenia and Azerbaijan cannot be identical.

“I would like to emphasize again that the November 9 statement envisages unblocking of all infrastructures in the region, while Azerbaijan is delaying in undertaking steps in this direction. We are ready for unblocking the region within the framework of the agreements on the preservation of the sovereignty of the countries and jurisdiction over roads, and the recent talks between the Deputy Prime Ministers of the two countries in Moscow followed this logic,” Mirzoyan said.