Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at a press conference that Armenia and Azerbaijan are negotiating for a peace agreement.
“We hope to reach agreement and sign the text as soon as possible,” the politician said.
According to Pashinyan, the signing of the peace document with Azerbaijan could take place at a meeting to be held in Chisinau on 1 June. However, for this, Yerevan and Baku need to complete the coordination of the draft agreement as soon as possible.
“Our task is to complete the negotiations as soon as possible and sign the document. Our team is working hard,” he said. He added that Azerbaijan has received an offer from Armenia for the draft peace agreement for the fourth time.
“If it turns out that Azerbaijan will give us its reaction to our proposals this week, and if a few days, a week is enough for analysis and we see that we consider the approaches acceptable within the framework of compromises, then why? no,” said Nikol Pashinyan.
The Armenian Prime Minister added that Azerbaijan has not yet responded to the Armenian offers.
According to Pashinyan, Armenia is ready to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as a part of Azerbaijan, provided that the security of the Armenian population is ensured.
“Intensive negotiations on the agreement to establish peace and relations with Azerbaijan are ongoing, and we hope to reach an agreement and sign the text as soon as possible,” Pashinyan said.
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev announced that the signing of a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia is inevitable soon.
“We believe that the signing of the peace agreement is inevitable and we are trying to make constructive efforts on our part to achieve this goal,” Aliyev said. The President of Azerbaijan emphasized that the peace agreement should include “international principles and norms”.
According to Nikol Pashinyan, the delimitation of the Armenia-Azerbaijan border should be carried out according to the maps of the 1975 USSR General Staff of the Armed Forces.
“Maps can and should be the basis for containment work. This also refers to the agreement reached in Prague on October 6, 2022 on the recognition of each other’s territorial integrity and delimitation in accordance with the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration.
According to Pashinyan, it is 86.6 thousand square meters. km. Azerbaijan lands (including Nagorno-Karabakh) are ready to recognize the Armenian authorities. Pashinyan added that the Armenian side is confident that Azerbaijan will recognize the territorial integrity of Armenia with an area of 29.8 thousand square meters. km.
He also said that the withdrawal of troops would mean stabilizing the region.
Lastly, Pashinyan stated that the Armenian leadership did not receive any “impulse or offer” from Western countries to end the Russian presence in Armenia.
“We are discussing our relations with Russia very transparently and there are no dark spots in these relations,” he said.
Pashinyan also criticized the actions of the CSTO mission – according to him, the CSTO does not operate on the territory of Armenia, since it does not specify this area in its documents.
“This is a fundamental problem. When they clearly mark the territory of Armenia, 90 percent of the problems will disappear,” he said.
Yerevan has already started to discuss security issues with Western partners. “We have never discussed such issues with the West before, believing that there is a security architecture in the region that must at least be legally reliable,” Pashinyan summarized.
Press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov interpreted the words of Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan. “Generally, the CSTO has jurisdiction across member states. Shows its activity. As for the Armenian Prime Minister’s statement, the Kremlin spokesperson said, “We will continue the dialogue with our Armenian friends.”
Dmitry Novikov, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Relations, said in a conversation with socialbites.ca that Pashinyan is in a difficult situation “from different angles – in a difficult domestic political situation, in a difficult international situation.”
“There are several centers of power that are affecting the situation in Armenia right now, the Armenian authorities. On the one hand, there is a position that Armenia should fulfill its allied obligations with the Russian Federation. On the other hand, there is a pressure factor from Western states that threaten Armenia with significant sanctions if friendly relations with Russia are maintained. In this case, he is trying to build a new policy path that will help resolve the tension in the relations between the Armenian side and Baku and Yerevan.”
Novikov expressed the view that Armenia’s withdrawal from the CSTO is not in accordance with Armenia’s national interests. The Russian deputy stressed that if the current Armenian authorities follow exactly this directive – the need to respect the interests of their country and people – there can be no talk of any withdrawal from the CSTO.