“After the war in 2020, for the last two years the Armenian government, having the political will to find a real lasting and comprehensive peace in our region, has been engaged in talks with Azerbaijan in good faith. There are separate tracks of negotiations: first, the opening of all transport communications in the region, second, delimitation and border security and the third, the treaty on establishment of peaceful relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan said in the interview to the Egyptian AlQahera News Agency.

Regarding the connectivity issue, our position is clear: Armenia is ready to open all communications at the very moment when Azerbaijan accepts that the roads should be operating under the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the states they are passing through. With regard to delimitation of borders, regrettably, months after the establishment of the commissions on the delimitation of borders in 2022, Azerbaijan not only raised new territorial claims, but also launched another invasion into the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia and then tried to justify its aggression with a fake argument that the border is not delimited.

Coming to the agreement on establishment of peaceful relations, I should mention that since December 2022 we have exchanged proposals on the draft treaty and tried to move ahead with the process to find fair solutions to the core issues.

Here, among Armenia’s suggestions is clarification of parameters for the delimitation of the state border, as we think that without clearly agreed parameters on the delimitation of the international borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan, countries cannot specify which territorial integrity they mutually recognize, and this will lead to another fighting instead of establishing peace.

Next is the distancing of forces from the state border and the creation of a demilitarized zone along the borderline as a confidence-building measure and security mechanism, helping to ensure prevention of any possible future escalation. We also believe that the treaty should establish a mechanism of guarantees, which will ensure the implementation of the obligations, as well as outline ways of resolution of possible misinterpretations and disputes.

Of course, as a key component, there should be an international mechanism to address the issues of rights and security of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Unfortunately, in response to our efforts we face not only the dismissive and maximalist approach by Azerbaijan during the negotiations, but also aggressive actions on the ground despite the ongoing negotiations. Most recently, following the ceasefire violations on March 2-3, three servicemen of the Police of the Nagorno-Karabakh were killed in the Lachin corridor on March 5 as a result of a pre-planned ambush by Azerbaijan. These actions once again demonstrate the lack of sincerity in Baku’s approach to the normalisation process as well as continuous recourse to use of force.

In parallel to these actions, Azerbaijan regularly steps back from agreements, continues its hate speech and xenophobic rhetoric, as well as rejects to resolve humanitarian issues such as the release of confirmed 33 Armenian prisoners of war who are still held hostage in Azerbaijan. The fate of many more Armenians is still unknown, and we have submitted to our partner organizations cases of enforced disappearances. The Armenian religious and cultural heritage, fallen under the Azerbaijani control in 2020, is facing an imminent threat of total erasure. All this is challenging the efforts towards establishing lasting peace and stability in the whole region,” Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia said.