Anna Naghdalyan to Kommersant: The People of Azerbaijan Should Prepare Their Leadership for Peace

The spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, Anna Naghdalyan, answered the questions of the newspaper Kommersant.

Question: Can we say that the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement has been pushed to the background?

Anna Naghdalyan: Since 2016, Azerbaijan has dealt a heavy blow to the peace process, the consequences of which have not been fully overcome. Over the past two years, we have noted clear positive shifts. The indicators of violations of the ceasefire regime have decreased, and an agreement was reached to prepare the peoples for peace, the first step of which was the exchange program for journalists. In recent months, the rhetoric of hatred, threats, and belligerent statements from the Azerbaijani leadership, against the backdrop of which the latest escalation occurred, has brought the peace process back to the situation of April 2016.

Question: Will there be discussions on humanitarian exchanges in the future?

Anna Naghdalyan: We had previously reached an agreement on preparing the peoples for peace. However, the recent events and aggressive statements from the Azerbaijani leadership have shown that it is not the authorities of Azerbaijan that should prepare the people, but rather the people of Azerbaijan should prepare their leadership for peace.