Baku Calls Yerevan’s Claims ‘Unfounded’
Official Yerevan on Tuesday accused Baku of stalling to sign a peace treaty by continuously adding to its list of preconditions imposed on Armenia.
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan reiterated Yerevan’s readiness to being talks with Baku to choose a date and a venue for signing of a treaty, an agreement on which was announced by both sides two weeks ago.
Since then, however, Azerbaijani officials have stepped up their threats against Armenia and have pressed for changes to Armenia’s constitution as a precondition for signing the document.
“Official Yerevan proposed to launch consultations to determine the place, time and other details of signing the agreement. As of this moment we haven’t heard the same readiness by official Baku,” Mirzoyan said during a press conference with his visiting Iranian counterpart, Sayyid Abbas Araghchi in Yerevan on Tuesday.
“Parallel with, and following the conclusion of the text of the peace agreement, Azerbaijan has been speaking of some other preconditions. You may ask, ‘what must be done?’ We must continue to work, negotiate, find mutually acceptable solutions, dignified solutions, solutions ensuring lasting peace, there is simply no alternative,” Mirzoyan asserted.
“Indeed, at this moment we don’t have a [mutual] understanding about where and when it will be signed. We are ready to maximally swiftly be engaged in that process and put our signature,” Mirzoyan added.
Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry was quick to respond to Mirzoyan, with its spokesperson Aykhan Hajizada calling Yerevan’s assertions of new preconditions from Baku “entirely unfounded.”
“The Armenian Foreign Minister is well aware that the demand to remove the provision against Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and sovereignty in the Armenian constitution, as well as to formally dissolve the Minsk Group, has been among the important topics of the negotiation process for the past two and a half years,” Hajizada said.
“The facts about the Constitution, Armenian national legislation, court cases, and political statements reflecting Armenia’s territorial claims against Azerbaijan were presented to the Armenian side during the Washington meeting in May 2023. Third countries are also fully aware of this,” the Azerbaijani spokesperson said.
“Taking the aforementioned into consideration, the Armenian side’s claims that Azerbaijan has recently put forward these conditions are aimed at confusing the international community, and this tactic will not yield any results,” he added.
“If the Armenian side is interested in signing a peace treaty, it should promptly amend its Constitution to renounce its territorial claims against Azerbaijan, and should not refrain from cooperation to officially dissolve the Minsk Group,” Hajizada asserted.
