Our country insists on signing the peace agreement. Azerbaijan's proposal regarding the peace treaty is still in force today," said Azerbaijan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Elnur Mammadov in an exclusive interview with AZERTAC.
"Azerbaijan is committed to the peaceful agenda. President Ilham Aliyev always mentions about it. Thus, in February 2021, Azerbaijan sent an official proposal to Armenia to sign a comprehensive peace agreement. Unfortunately, the Armenian side did not respond to this offer for about a year. Azerbaijan also sent a proposal to the Armenian side about the five basic principles of the peace agreement, which was for the first time mentioned in February 2022. At the same time, the international community, third countries that provide assistance in this process, and third parties were also informed about this," the deputy minister emphasized.
He noted that Armenia decided to start discussions on the terms of the future peace agreement with the Azerbaijani side only after the following meeting held in August 2022.
"For almost a year and a half, Armenia generally has not reacted to this proposal. If we take the period of the last year, peace talks were held on several platforms, and concrete and detailed proposals were given to the other side regarding the terms of the future peace agreement. Armenia also presented its comments and position to Azerbaijan,” the Deputy FM added.
"Azerbaijan's proposal regarding the peace agreement is still in force today. Therefore, the next steps should be taken mostly by Armenia. To date, most of the points of the peace agreement have been agreed upon between the parties. We believe that after the Azerbaijani state fully restores its sovereignty over its internationally recognized territories in Karabakh, the signing of the peace agreement will become even more convenient, easier, and the probability of its signing should be high,” Elnur Mammadov underlined.