“O Armenia is ready to finalize the peace agreement document with the Azerbaijan and sign it within a month”, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, Ararat Mirzoyan.
In his assessment, however, Baku has not clearly expressed mutual willingness to take such a step.
“Armenia continues its territorial claims”
Your Azerbaijani counterpart Zeihun Bairamov admitted on Thursday that “significant progress” had been made in creating a plan, but added that “Armenia continues its territorial claims over the territories of Azerbaijan.” For us, this is the most serious obstacle to completing the process.”
Azerbaijan and Armenia are currently working on normalization of your relationshipsfrom Azerbaijan regained full control of Karabakh province, which has been under illegal occupation by Armenian-backed ethnic Armenian separatists since the 1990s.
‘Cause both sides are fighting
Since December, the parties have been struggling to begin negotiations on a peace treaty, the main parts of which were the demarcation of borders and creation of regional transport corridors through the territory of the other side.
In a historical section, the Sabah daily reports, Armenia returned to Azerbaijan four villages, which were occupied in the 1990s, at the end of last month.
The parties also agreed to new demarcation of 12.7 kilometers (almost 7 miles) of its borderreturning the villages of Baghanis Ayrum, Ashaghi Askipara, Kheyrimli and Ghizilhajili to Azerbaijan.
Although the move has sparked protests in Armenia, it is being hailed as a step towards reach a comprehensive peace agreement after years of fruitless talks mediated by Russia and Western countries.
Speaking at a joint press conference with his Georgian counterpart in Tbilisi on Thursday, Bairamov praised a number of positive developments recorded in Armenia in recent years.
But Armenia’s “territorial claims” should be considered “disagreeable and Yerevan should take action on the matter,” Bairamov said.
Armenia and Azerbaijan still have other unresolved territorial disputes, mainly over enclaves that both sides want the other to own. give up control or provide access to them.
The President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev repeatedly demanded from Armenia amend its constitution to remove an indirect reference to Karabakh’s independence before signing a peace agreement.
For his part, the Prime Minister of Armenia Nicole Pashinian stated that Yerevan will not accept Baku’s demands to change its constitution.