“Azerbaijan is open to the negotiation process with Armenia,” Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said in an interview with "Izvestia" newspaper.

Jeyhun Bayramov stated that while Azerbaijan seeks to improve relations with Armenia, it still feels that the Republic of Armenia should drop all of the unfounded demands it had put forward over the decades. Jeyhun Bayramov also emphasized that this should not occur merely at the level of statements and declarations, but should be reflected in a legally substantiated manner.

"We are open to the format of the negotiation process. For this, we employ a bilateral format directly between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Furthermore, we have never given up using various platforms. The platform of the Russian Federation has always been suitable for us. From now on, we are ready to use this platform. Recently, however, it has been the Armenian side that has not agreed to this," the Minister stated.

Minister Bayramov then added that the main concern for Azerbaijan is Armenia's complete renunciation of its territorial claims against Azerbaijan. He also noted that the peace treaty should eliminate all potential risks related to revisiting this issue. " It is no secret that Armenia's fundamental documents still contain territorial claims against Azerbaijan, which is unacceptable and represents a major obstacle to concluding the peace treaty," Bayramov said.

The Minister also underlined the role of Russian President Vladimir Putin in reaching agreements on the settlement of the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia in 2020.

Farida Abdullayeva

Special correspondent of AZERTAC

Moscow