Azerbaijani officials have said the country could be closing in on a peace agreement with Armenia to end their decades-long conflict following its lightning offensive in September to take control of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Guardian reports.
Azerbaijan and Armenia close to peace agreement, officials says
STEPANAKERT, DECEMBER 28, ARTSAKHPRESS: The two sides have now exchanged seven drafts of a potential relatively short peace agreement. Elchin Amirbayov, the special ambassador to the Azerbaijani president, said the country is now waiting for Armenia’s response to its comments on the latest draft proposals.
“What is important to understand is that at this crucial stage in negotiations, where apparently we’re not that much far away from the final agreement, [is that] we do need a result-oriented exercise,” he said. “I know that that after three decades of negotiations and without no major result, there is a certain kind of fatigue and also frustration in both parties for how long we will continue just to see to meet each other without any reasonable results.”
Amirbayov said the five principles in the draft agreement are “mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and inviolability of international recognised borders, rejection of any territorial claims to each other, now and in the future, rejection of any acts that would run counter to UN charter, like the use of force or threat of use of force, but also delimitation of the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which has never been done. And, last but not least, opening of communication routes and ties between Armenia and Azerbaijan, because we’ve been without any connection because of the conflict for 30 years.”
In practice the issue of the border demarcation might be settled at a later stage since the negotiations are deemed so complex.
Azerbaijan also wants some kind of dispute mechanism for the agreement. “Our preference would be to have peace agreements. An article which would speak about some kind of bilateral commission, which needs to be set up in order to address all those misunderstandings or differences in interpretations between us."
“The linkage between Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan between two parts of Azerbaijan is crucial for us, in terms of national security, but also in terms of ensuring alternative route for the middle corridor,” Amirbayov said. “We cannot waste any more time. After three years Armenia has not even started a feasibility study for the 42km leg.
“Of course, we cannot force Armenia to implement what they had committed to, and it is nonsensical to suggest we would invade to impose this corridor through force or such like. So we have reached out to Iran as a plan B to build a link by road and rail through Iran.”
He said if it is possible the existence of the alternative route might make Armenia to realise how much they may lose by continuing to resist the link going through its land.
