Azerbaijan Must End Blockade and Begin Negotiations with Artsakh Representatives, Marukyan

Armenia's special envoy Edmon Marukyan emphasizes the importance of creating a climate of trust between Armenia and Azerbaijan to achieve stable and lasting peace in the South Caucasus. Marukyan made the statement on his X page.

"The lack of trust between Armenia and Azerbaijan is a fundamental issue that must be resolved in order to see significant progress in the peace process. I can confidently state that over the past two years, the Prime Minister of Armenia has taken all possible, and what may seem impossible, steps to strengthen trust in peaceful negotiations aimed at achieving long-term peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan," Marukyan wrote.

He added that in response to these efforts, Azerbaijan continues to hold prisoners of war and other civilians in its jails, abduct new captives from Armenian territory and the Lachin corridor, refuses to withdraw its troops from Armenia's sovereign territory, regularly attacks it, killing and injuring more people, blocking communications, undermining the delimitation process of state borders, and has besieged and is starving 120,000 residents of Nagorno-Karabakh, while rejecting negotiations between Baku and Stepanakert under international mechanisms.

"All of this has disrupted and continues to harm the peace process, as well as the efforts of all mediators involved. Now, in light of all this, Azerbaijan has amassed troops along the line of contact with Nagorno-Karabakh and along Armenia's sovereign territory, concentrating its state propaganda on war speech while threatening the region's fragile peace," he stated.

Marukyan asserted that for the peace process to return to a clear path, the international community and mediators must demand that Azerbaijan takes adequate measures in response to Armenia’s trust-building efforts.

"As a result, Azerbaijan must end the blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh, begin negotiations with the representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh under international mechanisms that will guarantee the rights and security of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, withdraw its armed forces from Armenia’s sovereign territory, release all prisoners of war and civilians held in Azerbaijani jails, commence the delimitation process based on the 1975 maps, and unblock all transportation communications based on the sovereignty and national legislation of the parties involved," wrote Edmon Marukyan.