Azerbaijani FM spoke about the protests in Armenia, the demarcation commission, connecting 5+6 points

“Back in February, the Azerbaijani side presented Armenia with 5 fundamental principles of the peace treaty. Armenia stated these principles are unacceptable for them,” Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said, APA reports.

According to him, later reports of 6 proposals from Armenia were received. “If you look at the document, it cannot be called proposals. At the time of submission, that document was in the form of the Armenian side’s reaction to Azerbaijan’s proposals. I can list some of these 6 points, and you can tell if you can call it a proposal.”

Bayramov noted that one of the paragraphs emphasizes that the Azerbaijani side presented to Armenia the proposals of February 21 in early March. “Azerbaijan noted from the very first day that the main proposals were submitted through intermediaries. You need to ask the intermediaries about this. If Azerbaijan noted February 21, then it presented on that day. The next point is that Armenia has no territorial requirements for Azerbaijan. Back in 1992, both countries, being members of the CIS, recognized each other’s territorial integrity. And this is to some extent a repetition of the fundamental principle of Azerbaijan.”

The Azerbaijani Foreign Minister also recalled one of the agreements reached after the April 6 meeting in Brussels with the participation of the Prime Minister of Armenia, the President of Azerbaijan and the Chairman of the EU Council, according to which a demarcation commission will be established.

He noted that the first meeting was planned to be held before the end of April. “I can note that before the meeting, two telephone conversations took place between me and the Armenian Foreign Minister. During those phone talks, Azerbaijan presented its proposals on the structure of the commission. Azerbaijan’s proposal was that the commission should be organized in a different format, that is, the person who will lead the commission should be at the level of the deputy Prime Minister. Even during the first telephone conversation, the Armenian Foreign Minister took it with understanding, saying that more time was needed to discuss this proposal in Armenia. Then the Armenian side stated that this proposal was acceptable to them. There is an agreement between the parties on the structure of the commission. The Azerbaijani side was already ready to hold this meeting in April. After the Armenian side completes its procedures, the meeting can take place,” the Azerbaijani minister added.

He also touched upon the protests in Armenia, noting that the organizers of the protests are quite well-known personalities in the Armenian society. According to him, “the people holding protests in Armenia made false promises to the Armenian people, lived in illusions for almost 30 years.”

“This is an integral part of the struggle for power, they want to raise the topic of Karabakh again. Of course, we are following these processes, there is not a word about broad public support, at best there are not even five or six thousand people,” Bayramov said.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry has not yet commented on rumors about approval of the structure of the commission on the delimitation and demarcation of the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Vahan Hunanyan, the spokesperson of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, said referring to the official message of April 25, in which it was noted that in a telephone conversation the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed on the structure of the commission on delimitation and border security.

The issue of 7 villages of the Ghazakh district and Kyarki should be resolved in the context of demarcation. Deputy FM of Azerbaijan

Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov stated that “the return of seven villages (meaning 7 enclaves in the Tavush region) and Kyarki (Tigranashen) should be carried out in accordance with the requirements of the border demarcation process with Armenia.”

According to him, the issue of the return of these territories to Azerbaijan should be resolved as a result of ongoing negotiations.

“Armenia can never claim that these territories are not the territory of Azerbaijan. These territories are the territory of Azerbaijan. Since the return of these territories to Azerbaijan requires a demarcation process, the issue will be considered in this context. The return of these territories to Azerbaijan will be discussed and will find its solution,” Khalafov said.

Armenia’s Ambassador at-large Edmon Marukyan said that there is no legal ground that at any time any de-jure Azerbaijani enclave has existed in the territory of Armenia.

Commenting on the statement of the Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Khalafov that on April 6 in Brussels the Republic of Armenia agreed to launch peace treaty negotiations with Azerbaijan based on the 5-points presented by Azerbaijan, Marukyan said: “We’ve numerously addressed this topic. Back in March 21, 2022 the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia said that there is nothing unacceptable for us in the proposals handed over to us by Azerbaijan on March 10. It is another matter that these proposals do not address all issues of the Armenia-Azerbaijan comprehensive peace agenda. We supplemented the agenda with our response handed over to the OSCE MG Co-Chairmanship and therefore we are ready for the launch of the peace talks based on this.”

“During the trilateral meeting in Brussels on April 6 the Republic of Armenia also [directly] handed over to the Azerbaijani side the 6-point document which includes, among others, the issues of the security and the protection of the rights of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh and the final status of Nagorno Karabakh. The Armenian side offered to start negotiations based on the two agendas in the direction of a peace treaty. The Azerbaijani side agreed to this approach, after which an agreement was reached to initiate negotiations on a peace treaty,” Marukyan said.

Edmon Marukyan also referred to Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister’s statement on what he called the return of “7 villages of the Ghazakh district and Kyarki” to Azerbaijan. “We’ve numerously said that the delimitation and demarcation processes should take place based on facts and documents of de-jure significance. At this moment we don’t possess any legal substantiation that any de-jure Azerbaijani enclave has ever existed in the territory of Armenia. On the contrary, there are legal grounds on the village of Artsvashen belonging to Armenia. The same applies to a number of territories belonging to Armenia, including in the Sotk-Khoznavar section where the infamous unlawful Azerbaijani military invasion took place last year in May. These issues must certainly be discussed and resolved in the delimitation and demarcation process”

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