“The ball is in Armenia’s court,” President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan declared on Wednesday, while insisting that a peace treaty with Yerevan will not be signed and reiterating his preconditions.
Aliyev insisted, during a press conference with his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is visiting Baku, that the OSCE Minsk Group must be dissolved and Armenia must amend its constitution before a peace deal can be signed with Armenia.
Ilham Aliyev recalled that the text of the peace agreement with Armenia has been fully agreed upon and that Azerbaijan does not put forward any additional conditions, according to the Azertac state news agency.
“Our conditions are known to Armenia, they are not new. We have been putting forward these conditions for a long time. However, we have not received any serious response from Armenia to date. What does this consist of? First, the OSCE Minsk Group must be dissolved,” Aliyev said.
The Azerbaijani leader added that Armenia’s Constitution contains territorial claims from Azerbaijan.
“This is considered an open territorial claim against us. Therefore, the removal of this clause from the Armenian constitution is our legitimate demand,” Aliyev insisted, noting that there will be no obstacles to the deal’s signing once these two conditions are met.
“As they say, the ball is in Armenia’s court. If Armenia really wants to sign the peace treaty, it must accept these two legitimate conditions of Azerbaijan,” Aliyev emphasized.
Steinmeier, who visited Yerevan ahead of this trip to Baku, said that an agreement between Baku and Yerevan on the specific language of the peace treaty, which was announced last month, was a critical juncture in stabilizing the Caucasus region.
He said that the sides should not “waste time” and should sign the document as soon as possible.
