Yerevan and Baku agree on basic principles of peace treaty – Armenian premier

Armenia and Azerbaijan were able to agree on the basic principles of the peace agreement, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told the opening ceremony of the autumn session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Yerevan, TASS reports.

“We have good and bad news about the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process. It is good that the basic principles of peace have been agreed upon with Azerbaijan. This happened through the mediation of European Council President Charles Michel, as a result of my meetings with Azerbaijani President [Ilham Aliyev] in Brussels.

The biggest bad news is that we still speak different diplomatic languages and very often do not understand each other. There are objective reasons for this: a long-term conflict, thousands of victims, dozens of prisoners, an atmosphere of hatred that has reigned for decades, and suspicions that bad intentions are hidden over constructive statements. Moreover, what I say applies to both Armenia and Azerbaijan to a greater or lesser extent,” Pashinyan noted.

Pashinyan also touched upon the dialogue with Türkiye.

As Report says with reference to the Armenian media, Pashinyan said: “We have never had such an active dialogue before, despite the fact that we do not have any success in terms of establishing diplomatic relations. However, the normalization of relations between Armenia and Türkiye is the most important factor for the strategic vision of a peaceful, developing environment in the South Caucasus.”

He expressed the hope that the issue of opening the Armenian-Turkish border for citizens of third countries and persons with diplomatic passports will be positively resolved in the near future.

“This will be a very symbolic step,” Pashinyan said.

He emphasized that the Republic of Armenia and he personally are ready to bear the necessary responsibility to achieve this goal.