No more grey zones on Azerbaijani territory Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov's interview

On September 5, within the framework of his official visit to Hungary, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov gave an interview to Azerbaijani state news agency Azertag and the Hungarian Magyar Demokrata newspaper.

Answering a question about what explains Hungary's leading position among the countries of the whole European Union in terms of mutual official and working visits of the leaders and members of the governments of the two countries, the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister said: "Azerbaijan is developing friendly relations with many countries of the world. The priority of Azerbaijan's foreign policy is the active role of domestic diplomacy on all fronts. Indeed, Hungary is among those states with which the level of our cooperation has reached a high point, and it continues to expand. The origins of our cooperation were laid long ago. President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly paid visits to Hungary. In 2014, a Joint Declaration on Strategic Partnership between Azerbaijan and Hungary was signed.

Since then, relations between us have reached the level of very close, and friendly, based on mutual respect and benefit. Therefore, it is not surprising that nine years after the signing of that declaration in 2014, this year, in January 2023, President Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister Viktor Orban signed a new document - the Declaration on Enhanced Strategic Partnership between Azerbaijan and Hungary.

The mutual will of the two countries to expand and deepen cooperation makes our relations truly special. Everything that is discussed between the two leaders is then reflected in actions and put into practice. Yesterday I had the opportunity to hold the first strategic dialogue with my Hungarian counterpart, based on the declarations signed earlier. And if you look at the final minutes of our dialogue, you will notice that our relations cover a huge range of areas both at the bilateral level and in multilateral formats in the political, economic, and cultural spheres, including education, tourism, and much more".

Referring to the first strategic dialogue with Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó on Monday, Bayramov said the dialogue was held in a very constructive atmosphere, and a wide range of issues were discussed. In addition to this meeting, the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister, at the invitation of his Hungarian counterpart, took part in a conference of heads of diplomatic missions of Hungary in different countries of the world, during which he answered numerous questions from its participants.

"It was a marvellous opportunity. Mr Szijjártó has visited Azerbaijan three times this year alone. I have also visited Hungary three times this year - twice as part of the visit of the head of state, and now my third visit this year is taking place in the context of the first strategic dialogue between the foreign ministers of our countries," the minister said.

Taking the question about new horizons of cooperation between the two countries in the field of energy, both traditional hydrocarbon and "green", Jeyhun Bayramov said: "Indeed, energy plays one of the key roles in our cooperation. Azerbaijan's energy policy itself is multi-layered, and cooperation with Hungary covers all segments of our national energy sector. This is the oil segment, which includes the Hungarian capital represented by the MOL concern; in particular, this company owns a 9.57 per cent stake in the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field, which is Azerbaijan's largest oil deposit, as well as an 8.9 per cent stake in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline. This is also the gas segment. It should be noted here that since the end of 2020, when the construction of the second phase of the Southern Gas Corridor, namely the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), was completed, Azerbaijan for the first time became a supplier not only of crude oil to the European market but also of natural gas. At first, it was envisaged that gas supplies would go to Italy, Greece, and Bulgaria, but then interest was expressed by a number of other states, including our friendly Hungary.

Yesterday, at a meeting with my colleague Peter Szijjártó, he said that Azerbaijani gas has already started to flow to Hungary. Our plans are to increase the volume of supplies. In addition to oil and gas, which connect our countries, we should also mention the green energy segment. You know that the 'Memorandum of Understanding on Strategic Partnership in the Energy Sector between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the European Union presented by the European Commission' was signed on July 18, 2022. Later in a year, on December 17, a memorandum of understanding was signed in Bucharest for the establishment of a joint venture between Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania, and Hungary for the implementation of a project providing for the transmission of Azerbaijani 'green' electricity across the Black Sea to the European continent. Thus, electricity of 'green' origin is another segment in Azerbaijani-Hungarian cooperation in the field of energy. But, at the same time, I would like to note that all of the above is also true for the entire European Union, given that for many years Azerbaijan has been and remains a reliable partner in ensuring the energy security of the European continent, including all the segments mentioned above: oil, from 2020 - gas, and in the future also 'green' electricity.

As I have already mentioned, Caspian gas started to flow to Hungary for the first time. Initially, it was planned to supply natural gas to three countries - Italy, Greece, and Bulgaria - but as of this year, Hungary and Romania have also joined the list of countries receiving gas from the Caspian Sea. A number of other countries have also shown interest and expressed their desire to join. In particular, in April this year, energy companies from Azerbaijan, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Slovakia signed an agreement, called the "Ring of Solidarity", to utilise internal European gas interconnectors to increase Caspian gas flows to them via the Southern Gas Corridor.

The plans, as you can see, are big. Europe expects to receive 20 billion cubic metres from us by 2027. The current dynamics allow us to pass this bar. At the very beginning, Azerbaijan supplied about 8 billion cubic metres. Last year it was 11.4 billion cubic metres, and this year it will be 12.5 billion cubic metres, and this is only for the EU countries. In addition to the EU, Azerbaijan is the main supplier of natural gas to Georgia and one of the largest suppliers to the Turkish market".

Jeyhun Bayramov also touched upon cooperation in the field of air communication, noting the role of Wizzair airline, as well as tourism, construction, military industry, pharmaceuticals, including projects in the Alat Free Economic Zone. The minister spoke about Hungary's plans to establish a "smart village" in Soltanli in Jabrayil district liberated from occupation.

Answering a question about new horizons of cooperation within the framework of the Organisation of Turkic States (OTS), the foreign minister recalled that Hungary has remained active since its participation in the aforementioned organisation as an observer since 2018. According to the minister, our peoples share a common historical past, and close cultural roots, and the societies of the two countries show undisguised interest in further rapprochement. The cultural capital of the Turkic world in 2023, the city of Shusha, and the cultural capital of Hungary, the city of Veszprém, are actively cooperating and a memorandum has been signed between them. The role of Hungary in the OTS is very positive and this is very much appreciated by all members of the organisation.

When asked about the current state of post-war settlement in the South Caucasus region, Jeyhun Bayramov gave a detailed answer, saying: "The proposal to turn the page of enmity and start building peace came from President Aliyev, and this happened just a couple of months after the end of the 44-day war. Given the long thirty years of conflict, as well as the destruction that Armenia left in the occupied lands, it was naturally not easy to make such a proposal, but Baku went for it and was the first to propose to start looking into the future. For thirteen months Armenia did not react to this proposal. In February 2022, Azerbaijan made another proposal - five principles that would form the basis of a future peace agreement. Then in October 2022, Azerbaijan was active again, drafting a peace agreement and presenting it to Armenia during the first round of negotiations in Geneva.

Azerbaijan's position is to leave behind enmity and to start a new era in relations between the two countries based on the principles of international law, such as respect for territorial integrity, sovereignty, and inviolability of borders. What do we see? It took Armenia two and a half years after the end of the war for its Prime Minister to finally recognise, even if verbally, the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan with Karabakh as part of it. Now it is time to back up what was said orally with an official signature, and this requires the finalisation of a draft peace agreement. Unfortunately, we see inconsistencies between the actions of the Armenian leadership and the verbal statements made earlier. Sometimes we hear statements that refute what was said earlier. Worst of all, from time to time we see military provocations on the ground. This part has two components, and both of these components increase tension in the region: firstly, these are provocations on the conditional border between Armenia and Azerbaijan; and secondly, and here I want to place a special emphasis on the fact that a serious source of tension and explosiveness in the region is the continued presence of illegal military formations on the territory of Azerbaijan, numbering about 10 thousand persons, which is a flagrant violation of the Trilateral Statement of November 10, 2020. I recall that, according to paragraph 4, all Armenian armed forces should have been withdrawn in parallel with the deployment of the peacekeeping contingent of the Russian Federation. Unfortunately, almost three years after the signing of the tripartite statement, the illegal formations have still not been withdrawn. They are being maintained by Armenia, which finances them from its state budget. Some of the personnel of these formations are military personnel of the Armenian Armed Forces. There is a great deal of evidence and facts confirming this. We are convinced that the peace agenda must continue, and we are determined to finalise this process. The final text of the agreement, which should be based exclusively on the norms of international law, should also be finalised".

Touching upon the topic of Lachin road, which has been hyped in a number of foreign media in recent days, the Minister noted that all the hysteria comes from Armenia and some of its patrons: "All this propaganda has no grounds. This is not a humanitarian issue, it is purely political manipulation. The Lachin road is currently being used by the ICRC. Every day dozens of Armenian residents quietly pass through the checkpoint in both directions. They transport the sick and, in addition, the ICRC brings medicines and other necessary items to the region. Baku's position is to use all alternative routes. If the issue were really humanitarian, it would be solved in a very short time by opening several roads in parallel. But for almost three years now, some representatives of local Armenians in the region have been doing everything to prevent any opportunities, to cut off any threads that could be directly or indirectly considered as the first steps towards the process of reintegration of the Armenian population into the political, economic, social architecture of the Azerbaijani state. And this is nothing but the encouragement of segregation and separatism. Unfortunately, Armenia's position is to support this line, which contradicts Yerevan's verbal statement that it recognises the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

Preliminary agreements on the routes were reached, but at the last moment the Armenian leadership again, as it has done many times in the past, disrupted them. This whole vilifying information campaign about a certain "humanitarian catastrophe" has no basis whatsoever. It is unthinkable to accuse a country, which offers several supply routes instead of one, of creating a "humanitarian crisis"! We offer the Aghdam-Khankendi road because of the optimality of this route, but in reality, there are many other roads, including Fuzuli and Shusha. Our partners are aware of all this, as are the ICRC staff in Baku. For them, it is a matter of a few hours to assemble a convoy to deliver goods through Aghdam. They have all the capabilities, all the necessary infrastructure, logistics, vehicles, and warehouses in Barda - in short, absolutely everything that is needed. The road through Aghdam is the shortest.

But look what the representatives of the Armenian population are doing! They set up concrete blocks to make it impossible to pass through with food. That's the whole point. They are interested in separatism. Our position is that this topic should not be politicised, because when you talk about one road, rejecting the others, it is already politicisation of the issue, which has nothing to do with humanitarian terms. It is already a political agenda, and quite harmful. It is not in the interests of either Armenians or Azerbaijanis. Thirty years of conflict have shown that no one has benefited from this self-isolation. We continue to consider the inhabitants of Karabakh of Armenian nationality as our citizens. Unlike Armenia, Azerbaijan is not a mono-ethnic state. And according to the Constitution of Azerbaijan and a number of international conventions to which our country has acceded, all ethnic minorities have equal rights, freedoms, and equal responsibilities".

Referring to the dialogue between the government of Azerbaijan and representatives of the Armenian population of Karabakh, the minister noted that the first meeting has already taken place. He said: "A special representative appointed by the President held a first meeting in Karabakh at the beginning of the year, which was followed by an invitation for a second meeting in a city in Azerbaijan as a kind of 'rotation'. It was also brought to the attention of the representatives of the Armenian population that the representative of the central government would be ready to continue further meetings in the same rotational format - the third meeting again in Karabakh, the fourth in one of the Azerbaijani cities, the fifth again in Karabakh, and so on. It was important for us to keep the process going. And in this sense, Baku showed goodwill and openness to dialogue. This is the only way forward. Those who refuse dialogue should free themselves from the role of hostages in the hands of third forces that can send them messages and promise them anything. They should look at the past and consider what they have achieved. Did they become happier, and live a better life? No, of course not. The only way is dialogue and discussion of their future as part of Azerbaijan. There is no other way, as everything else is illegitimate. This is our red line. There will be no more grey zones on the territory of Azerbaijan".

Answering a question about the current state of negotiations with Armenia on the opening of the Zangazur corridor, Jeyhun Bayramov said that the opening of unimpeded communication between the western regions of Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic is part of the Trilateral Statement of November 10, 2020. He said: "Opening of communications is very important, as transport links, trade, and other things do not just bring benefits and profits to the parties, but make the peace process in the region irreversible, as it strongly binds the countries together. At the same time, geopolitical processes that are taking place not only in our region but also beyond its borders, dictate the need to open new transport routes linking East and West, especially if we take into account the war in Ukraine. The demand for routes is great, both from the European Union and from Central Asian states and further East. In this sense, the importance of the Midland Corridor, which runs through the territory of Azerbaijan, is great. Last year alone, cargo traffic through our country increased by 70 per cent. The demand is great. The Zangazur corridor is one of the elements of the East-West route. Experts have estimated that the Zangazur corridor could add an additional 5-8 million tonnes of cargo to the Midland Corridor. This is a big benefit not only for Azerbaijan and Armenia but also for other countries.

Based on the trilateral statements of November 2020 and January 2021, a working group at the level of deputy prime ministers of the three countries was established. The work has been going on for almost three years now. At some point, there is a feeling that we are close to the end of the work, but at the last moment, Armenia suddenly puts forward something new, which again brings the process to a deadlock. This is unconstructive, and in addition, it is also a violation of the relevant paragraph of the Trilateral Statement, under which Armenia has undertaken to guarantee the unimpeded movement of goods, citizens, and vehicles. This is not only unconstructive on the Armenian side, it is also harmful to it. It is depriving itself of benefits, although of all countries it is the one that needs to improve its economic situation and get out of isolation".

At the end of the interview, the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister said that such an approach may lead to the fact that Yerevan will miss another profitable opportunity to improve the country's economy, as the road may simply bypass Armenia.

"Azerbaijan will continue the work in this regard, keeping in mind plan B. And for us, the project will be implemented even without the participation of Armenia; but in that case, it [Armenia] will simply remain out of the number of beneficiaries," he noted.