Armenia's path to peace lies in renouncing Karabakh, constitutional revisions, and demilitarization Azerbaijani presidential aide talks to La Repubblica

In a revealing interview for Italian newspaper La Repubblica, journalist Luca Steinmann discussed critical issues with Hikmet Hajiyev, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan and Head of the Foreign Policy Department of the Presidential Administration. Caliber.Az presents this important dialogue for its readers.

How close are we to peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan?

- There is already a de facto peace in the region that was achieved not through Armenia’s goodwill but thanks to Azerbaijan’s military and coercive measures. In thirty years, no tangible result had been achieved to overcome the conflict, which is why we were forced to launch two military operations in 2020 and 2023 that liberated the territories of Karabakh occupied by Armenia and thus restored our territorial integrity. We won the war, now we also want to win peace. We are closer than we have ever been before but there are still obstacles that prevent us from moving forward. The first is the Armenian constitution which calls into question the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. Its preamble, in fact, refers to the declaration of independence in which the word “Miatsum” is written, which in Armenian means “unification” of the Azerbaijani territories of Karabakh with Armenia. We do not want to reach a peace agreement only with the Armenian government but also with its people who should raise their voices demanding a referendum to change the constitution by renouncing territorial claims in Azerbaijan. The peace treaty must not be a piece of paper but a guarantee that no one in Armenia will ever again adopt revanchism against Azerbaijan and threaten peace in the region.

Are you afraid that the current Armenian government, with which you are negotiating, may give way to political forces that are contrary to the objectives of the negotiations?

- There is this kind of concern in Azerbaijan that does not concern a single Armenian political force but in general the widespread sense of revanchism in their mainstream. In their mentality, the concept of “great Armenia” is still widespread, which postulates the occupation of the territories of neighbouring countries in the name of “historical Armenia”. It is as if today someone in Rome were claiming the restoration of the Roman Empire. Therefore, a referendum is needed in which the Armenian people distance themselves from revanchism and claims on Karabakh and make the future peace treaty immune from the revisionism of future possible Armenian governments.

Recently your President Aliyev called Yerevan, the Armenian capital, an Azerbaijani city. Do you have territorial claims on Armenia?

- My ancestors come from the Göyça region, which Armenians call Sevan (a region that is now part of Armenia). Many Azerbaijanis are originally from territories that are now Armenia but which, from a historical point of view, are rich in Azerbaijani cultural heritage. These include the territories that were part of the Yerevan Khanate, which was a historically Azerbaijani city but was later occupied by the Russian Empire. It is a historical and cultural issue that concerns the right of return of civilians. Azerbaijanis who are originally from those territories should be allowed to return to the land of their ancestors. But it is not a territorial claim or a violation of Armenian sovereignty.

What, in your opinion, are the other obstacles to achieving peace?

- The militarization of Armenia must be responsible and proportionate. Yerevan is acquiring missiles and long-range artillery systems, for example from France, with which it can strike Azerbaijani cities again. The best solution for Armenia would be neutrality and not military alliances that threaten the security of Azerbaijan. It is counterproductive that certain Western countries with colonial pasts use Armenia to promote their policies and intrigues in the Caucasus as they have already done in Africa. For example, France and its government do not have a full understanding of the region and are making geopolitical mistakes that are counterproductive for Europe as well. Militarizing Armenia and thus encouraging its revanchism does not contribute to peace. We also see a military presence of the European Union in the region, in the form of a mission to monitor our borders in Armenia and through the European Peace Fund, which is a military project for Armenia. If the EU becomes a military factor in our region, legitimate questions arise: what is the final goal of militarizing Armenia?

Do you rule out that Azerbaijan will conduct further military operations against Armenia in the future?

- Our strategy is defense and deterrence and we have no territorial claims or military objectives on the territories of other countries. Our ultimate goal is the complete peaceful transformation of the South Caucasus. Like any other country, we have the right to self-defence. If Armenia were to place missiles or long-range artillery systems along our borders, then we would have legitimate concerns.

Another obstacle is the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Yerevan accuses you of occupying part of its territory…

- These accusations are unfounded. In fact, a border-definition process is already underway. Until recently, Armenia occupied seven villages, four of which have now been liberated through the border-definition process. Armenia claims that in September 2022, Azerbaijan took military control of some of its uninhabited territories along the border. But if this is not defined and no one knows where the demarcation line is, how can they accuse us of having taken their territory? There is a fundamental problem. In the last thirty years, Armenia has never built borders with Azerbaijan and has not respected the commitments made at the time of the Almaty Declaration of 1991. Instead, it occupied our territories, building fortified lines within them. Rather than accusing us of occupying their territories, it would be appropriate to discuss this within the border delimitation process.

A year ago, one hundred thousand Armenians left Karabakh. Will these people ever have the chance to return to their homes?

- For the past 30 years, Armenia has been ethnically cleansing the Azerbaijanis from Karabakh, expelling people and razing our mosques and other monuments. When we conducted the military operation to restore our territorial integrity last year, we opened corridors for the evacuation of the population to Armenia, without bombing civilians and telling them that they could stay if they wanted. On the condition that they accept the nationality and rules of Azerbaijan, and stop living in the grey zone where they were before. They did not accept and almost all of them decided to leave. The vast majority of Karabakh Armenians, especially men, were involved in military activities and were part of the operations and fighting against Azerbaijan. If they want to return, they will have to accept our citizenship and our laws. But Armenia should in turn be ready to grant the same rights to the Azerbaijani diaspora, allowing them to return to their homes.

On Azerbaijani television and media, high-level politicians have called Armenians pigs. Do you think reconciliation will ever be possible?

- Ethnic reconciliation is one of the most difficult aspects of any conflict and it will not be an easy or short process. The incidents you refer to are not mainstream and are not attributable to the government, which opposes them, which we see as widespread among Armenians. Azerbaijanis have suffered occupation, ethnic cleansing, and destruction of property. It is not easy for Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced persons to return to their homelands after 30 years and find their homes and cemeteries destroyed and the land littered with mines. It is not easy to accept that 4,000 Azerbaijanis have disappeared and that nothing more is known about them. But we must look to the future to gain more confidence and overcome the many wounds that are still open.