New peace under old conditions

Last week, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said that the Armenian side received Azerbaijan's next proposals on a peace treaty and is studying them. The head of the Armenian Foreign Ministry emphasized that the work on the peace treaty should continue and that it is very important. But Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, summing up the results of a closed meeting with representatives of the ruling Civil Contract party, where Azerbaijan’s latest judgments were discussed in connection with the alleged conclusion of peace, stated the need to complete negotiations and normalize relations with Turkey as soon as possible.

The fact that Armenia is working on the text of the peace treaty and will hand it over to Baku in the near future was also stated by Secretary of the Security Council Armen Grigoryan the other day. As is known, the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan have already held talks on this issue - in Brussels, Prague and Sochi.

And at a meeting of the Armenian government on Thursday, as Pashinyan announced, "Armenia handed over to Azerbaijan the final draft of the peace agreement." And he stressed that, in his opinion, the final peace document should contain effective mechanisms of checks and balances that would exclude any scenario of violation of long-term peace and stability.

What and how Yerevan indicated in its new version of the agreement is not yet known, although it is unlikely that there will be anything new - almost from time to time its requirements and conditions are repeated. Baku has also repeatedly declared its readiness to sign a peace agreement, but put forward as a condition the inclusion of five basic principles for the normalization of relations, involving mutual recognition by states of sovereignty, territorial integrity, inviolability of borders, confirmation of the absence of territorial claims against each other and the obligation not to make such claims in the future and renunciation of threats to use force. What should first be realized in the delimitation and demarcation of borders and the establishment of diplomatic relations, the opening of transport and other communications.

However, judging by the rhetoric of the Armenian authorities, Yerevan's policy of normalizing relations with Azerbaijan completely contradicts the basic principles of Baku and bypasses the international law. This is also indicated by the recent statements of the Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan, where he insists on holding negotiations between Khankendi and Baku within the framework of an internationally visible mechanism that can be mentioned in a peace treaty with Azerbaijan.

“This mechanism can be considered in the peace treaty, which is being negotiated. These may be other international structures or a different format. This is a subject of discussion,” Grigoryan said.

By the way, in December last year, in an interview with journalists, Grigoryan said that there were two versions of the text of the peace treaty proposed separately by Russia and Azerbaijan, and that the edited version would soon be transferred to Baku.

“Azerbaijan handed over the text of the peace treaty, the Armenian side finalized this document and responded to Azerbaijan during the meeting in Washington. After that, Azerbaijan handed over its modified version to Armenia. Armenia is now working on this text, and the answers, with additions or changes, will soon be submitted to Azerbaijan,” A. Grigoryan assured, adding that Yerevan stands for the creation of security guarantees.

That is, it is obvious that under the pretext of creating an “international mechanism”, the Armenian side is trying to push into the text of the peace treaty the clauses on the “rights and security of the Armenians of Karabakh”, which Armenia has been insisting on since the settlement of the Karabakh problem by Azerbaijan.

Of course, Baku is categorically against the option proposed by Armenia to create the so-called "international mechanism for discussing the rights of the Armenians of Karabakh", since this means direct interference in the internal affairs of Azerbaijan. Firstly, because Karabakh is an integral part of Azerbaijan, the rights and security of the Armenian population living in this region will be ensured in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Secondly, the process of reintegration of the Armenian population is again an internal issue of Azerbaijan, and the intervention of Armenia here is contrary to the norms and principles of international law. Thirdly, Armenia's attempts to include in the draft bilateral peace agreement a provision on an international mechanism for the rights and security of Armenians living in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan contradicts the Prague and Sochi agreements, according to which the countries mutually recognize each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty.

Speaking at a government meeting on Thursday, February 16, Prime Minister Pashinyan stated that Armenia yesterday completed the work of the next stage of the draft peace agreement and the establishment of relations with Azerbaijan, and that the proposals of the Armenian side were submitted to Azerbaijan.

“The draft of the final, full version of the agreement with our proposals has been handed over,” Pashinyan said, adding that the document was also handed over to Russia, France, and the United States.

“We are working on a draft agreement within the framework of the following logic - to receive such a document that we are ready to sign at any time. It is clear that this document should be acceptable for Azerbaijan as well. And we hope that the progress recorded as a result of the three stages of negotiations can be developed,” Pashinyan said, noting that the document should contain such effective mechanisms of checks and balances that would rule out any scenario of violating long-term peace and stability.

It is not difficult to guess that, speaking of effective mechanisms, the Armenian prime minister did not mean at all the observance of the principles of international law by the parties, but rather took into account only the interests of Armenia itself. Actually, this is confirmed by the provision put forward by Yerevan on the creation of an "international mechanism to discuss the rights and security of the Armenians of Karabakh."

On the other hand, there is a possibility that Armenia would like to conclude a peace agreement with Azerbaijan in order to finally normalize relations with Turkey and open the Armenian-Turkish border as soon as possible. However, for this, Yerevan will have to somehow accept the five basic principles of Baku and completely refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of Azerbaijan. Is Yerevan ready for this, a rhetorical question...