Azerbaijan still hopes to conclude peace deal with Armenia by end of 2023 - presidential aide

Azerbaijan still hopes to conclude a peace treaty with Armenia by the end of the year.

Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan - Head of the Foreign Policy Department of the Presidential Administration Hikmat Hajiyev said in an interview with TASS.

“We still hope for the signing of a peace treaty before the end of this year and call on the Armenian political leadership to take the main step - officially, with their signature under the peace treaty, to record recognition of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, including the Garabagh economic region of our republic, and to commit to refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of our country in the future,” he said.

“Including through attempts to bring our internal issues, such as issues of our interaction with our citizens of Armenian ethnic origin in Garabagh, to international platforms under the pretext of ensuring the rights and security of this group of population,” Hajiyev continued.

“These are our citizens, and their rights and security will be ensured by the constitution of Azerbaijan.”

According to the presidential aide, it is important that Armenia abandon the policy of financing separatism in Azerbaijan.

“As for the activities of international mediators, we highly appreciate their contribution to the normalisation of Azerbaijani-Armenian relations,” he added.

On the opening of the Zangezur corridor, Hajiyev said that Baku would work on alternative transport routes if Yerevan refused obligations.

Azerbaijan, if Armenia refuses its obligations, will work on alternative transport routes with other countries, Hikmat Hajiyev said.

“If Armenia refuses its obligations under various pretexts and wants to continue to remain isolated, then Baku does not intend to wait and is already actively working on alternative projects with other regional countries. We will not tie our logistics needs to the whims of the Armenian government and will move forward with our regional partners,” he noted.

The presidential aide emphasized that Azerbaijan consistently advocates the opening of all regional transport communications since it believes that close trade and economic ties will contribute to peace, stability, and prosperity of the region.

“In this context, we highly appreciate the position of the Russian Federation, which is making great efforts to make progress in this direction."

Hajiyev said that in negotiations on unblocking transport links, “there is a certain stagnation”. Thus, he recalled that one of the provisions of the trilateral statement of the leaders of the Russian Federation, Armenia, and Azerbaijan is the opening of the Zangezur corridor, “which means ensuring unhindered communication between the western regions of Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic” through the territory of Armenia.

“Almost three years later, this point of the agreement has still not been fulfilled by Armenia,” the Azerbaijani presidential aide added.

Further, in a comment on the Garabagh issue, the top presidential aide opined that it is Azerbaijan’s domestic issue and Baku is aimed at a peaceful resolution of existing issues with Yerevan, TASS reports.

Answering the question of whether Azerbaijan could again resort to force, as it did in 2020, the presidential adviser refrained from making predictions.

“I would not like to comment on hypothetical scenarios. Azerbaijan is a responsible member of the international community and always acts in accordance with the provisions of its constitution and international law. We are aimed at peaceful resolution of all existing issues,” he emphasized.

Commenting on the topic of possible compromises that Baku is ready to make in dialogue with Yerevan, Hajiyev noted that Azerbaijan would not discuss “either with Armenia or with any third country issues that call into question the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan”.

“Attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of our state, including by pushing the topic of creating some kind of international mechanisms for dialogue between the central government of Azerbaijan and the ethnic Armenian minority in Garabagh, are doomed to failure,” he noted.

“Garabagh is an internal issue of Azerbaijan, and any attempts to dispute this are counterproductive from the point of view of the prospects for achieving sustainable peace in the region.”