The government does not reveal what issue Armenia and Azerbaijan cannot reach an agreement on.
At the Saturday press conference, the Prime Minister announced that Yerevan and Baku have agreed on 13 of the 17 articles of the draft peace agreement, there is an agreement on the wording of 3. It turned out that there is one point that is controversial. But Pashinyan did not disclose the content of either the agreed upon or the discussed and disputed points.
“If there is something additional to inform, we will tell,” Deputy Foreign Minister Mnatsakan Safaryan announced today in response to journalists’ questions.
In addition to the deputy foreign minister, Sargis Khandanyan from the “Civil Pact” who also heads the NA Foreign Relations Committee did not make any disclosures, but insisted that Azerbaijan, which is dissatisfied with arming Armenia, did not make that demand a draft peace treaty, and the controversy is not about it.
“Such a question was not discussed during the discussions of the actual text of the contract. Third parties cannot force or demand Armenia not to purchase ammunition or weapons. But you also know that the government of Armenia has made a very clear proposal to Azerbaijan to introduce a mutual arms control mechanism, which has remained unanswered. Azerbaijan is also arming itself, that is, if there is such a concern there, there is even more of that concern here, and therefore it is very logical for such a mechanism to operate, but this mechanism remains unanswered”, emphasized Khandanyan, adding: – “Such a question was not discussed during the discussions of the actual text of the contract.”
“Azerbaijan does not mention such a point in the negotiation?” – the chairman of the NA committee answered this question of “Freedom”. – “No, he doesn’t mention it.”
The regulation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani demarcation signed last week states that the commissions will be based on the Alma-Ata declaration as a principle. But there is also a wording that if another principle is established in the peace agreement, it may take precedence over Alma-Ata.
However, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Parliament assures that no other principle is being discussed. Khandanyan claims that an agreement has been reached to enshrine the provisions of the Almaty Declaration in the peace treaty. Three months ago, Armenian officials did not hide the fact that Baku is against the inclusion of the reference to the Alma-Ata declaration in the agreement.
“It is legal language that a document with a higher status can establish a different principle, but such a thing is not discussed. It is a matter of legal technique, taking into account that the parties are also negotiating to sign a document with a higher status,” Khandanyan said, positively responding to Azatut’s question, “Have the parties reached an agreement on Almaty to be enshrined in the peace treaty?” . – “Of course they came, and we have said that many times. In other words, it happened at the political level, and it was also agreed in the document, and our principle position is that it should remain so.”
Azerbaijan has not yet sent its editorial on the draft, advised Armenia to approach the peace treaty more seriously. Foreign Minister Bayramov, without opening parentheses, complained that Yerevan left out several important points from the project.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia did not respond to Bayramov’s statement for the second day. Moreover, the Deputy Foreign Minister said today that he is not familiar with it.
“We forwarded the 10th version, and to be honest, I have not read yesterday’s statement. They will answer, according to that we will give our judgments and comments or offer,” stated Mnatsakan Safaryan.
Answering the question “Is the Artsakh issue finally closed?”, Sargis Khandanyan said that Armenia has no territorial claim to its neighbors.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Pashinyan considered the collective return of the people of Artsakh to Nagorno Karabakh to be unrealistic, but he also did not present his own: what does the leader of Armenia imagine, what does he consider realistic?
Pashinyan’s teammate Khandanyan said today that they are focusing on concluding a peace agreement. – “Return is not realistic under these conditions, I don’t think we can discuss this issue now, and that too publicly. But there is also the issue of security, isn’t it, the most important thing that still has no solution, that is, the security of the Republic of Armenia is still very, very threatened, and in these conditions, signing a peace treaty is a priority for the government of Armenia, for Armenia in general.”
A specific date for signing the document, which has been exchanged for about 2.5 years, has not been specified. It is clear that the parties are negotiating without mediators, and yesterday Yerevan sent the 10th edition of the draft peace treaty to Baku.
