Constructive position by Armenia key to concluding peace agreement Remarks by Azerbaijani president's representative

The conclusion of a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia is possible if the latter is firmly committed to it and shows a constructive position in the peace process.

Report informs that the statement came from the representative of the President of Azerbaijan on special assignments, Ambassador Elchin Amirbayov in an interview with the Italian news agency Adnkronos in Italy.

Amirbayov noted that achieving peace and tranquillity in the region is possible, but only if Armenia “stops imitating its participation in the peace process and resumes constructive work on the draft peace agreement presented to it by Azerbaijan more than a year ago and based on five fundamental principles of international law."

He added that the positive outcome of the negotiations “will largely depend on the level of sincerity of the Armenian authorities,” who, unfortunately, today adhere to a dual approach: “On the one hand, they talk about the desire to complete work on a peace agreement, on the other hand, they have unleashed diplomatic war against Azerbaijan."

According to Amirbayov, the Armenian authorities “abuse” various international platforms, such as the UN Security Council, the European Parliament, and even the European Union itself. Thus, Yerevan “not only distracts the attention of all interested parties from the main path to peace but also brings the process to a dead end", while Baku “does not put forward any conditions” for reaching an agreement.

“But I think that in order to reach a final agreement, Armenia must demonstrate that it respects the commitments it has already made, that it will fulfil the promises made in the past,” he noted, “I think that Armenia must resume negotiations on the peace project agreement, but at the highest level, and stop trying to pursue their own narrow political goals in parallel directions with the help of their allies.”

Amirbayov rejected as completely groundless the Armenian side's allegations of ethnic cleansing and genocide allegedly committed by Azerbaijan in the Karabakh region, accusing official Yerevan of banal devaluation of these concepts, while “the facts on the ground indicate just the opposite.”

“It was Armenia in the early nineties that carried out total ethnic cleansing of the Azerbaijani population in all the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, and as for the act of genocide, it was committed by Armenia on February 26, 1992, when the city of Khojaly, inhabited by Azerbaijanis, was completely destroyed, and the population, including women, old people and children were exterminated,” Amirbayov said, recalling that “613 Azerbaijanis were killed here in one night.”

Azerbaijan “respects the rights of all residents of the country, including ethnic Armenians living in the Karabakh region”, according to him.

Amirbayov also spoke about the large-scale restoration work carried out by the Azerbaijani authorities in the territories liberated from thirty years of Armenian occupation, for which the country’s government has already spent more than seven billion US dollars.

He highlighted, in the meantime, one of the main problems that Azerbaijan faced during post-conflict rehabilitation, namely the unprecedented contamination of the liberated territories with various types of mines and unexploded ordnance.

“Armenia has installed about 1.5 million landmines, and the number of casualties on the Azerbaijani side is constantly growing. Today, after the ceasefire, the number of victims of Armenian mine terror in Azerbaijan is 337 people,” he said.