Azerbaijan Can No Longer Afford to Waste Time: Aliyev's Representative

Azerbaijan has communicated five fundamental principles to the Armenian side, which have served as the basis for the peace agreement draft prepared by Baku. This was stated by Elchin Amirbekov, the special representative of the Azerbaijani President for special assignments, in an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian. The information was reported by RIA Novosti.

“Last week, the final version of the peace agreement text was handed over to the Armenian side, and now Baku is expecting a response to its proposals from Yerevan. We have outlined five key principles that have formed the basis for the draft peace agreement prepared by Baku,” he said.

Amirbekov added that Azerbaijan and Armenia could address the issue of determining their common border at a later stage, considering the complex and time-consuming nature of that process. “Now it is necessary to focus on the peace treaty,” the political figure noted.

He called on Armenia to “fully recognize all the benefits of peace with Azerbaijan” and to “finally abandon harmful illusions and destructive machinery aimed at undermining the peace process.” According to him, Azerbaijan and Armenia are generally not far from agreeing on a peace agreement.

“In this decisive phase of the peace process, when the sides are generally not far from agreeing on a peace accord, it is crucial for Yerevan to have a sincere willingness to achieve concrete results. By handing over the final version of the peace agreement text to the Armenian side last week, Baku is now expecting a response from Yerevan,” he said.

Amirbekov emphasized that the connection between the main part of Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan is of crucial importance for national security and is viewed as an alternative route within the Middle Corridor framework.

He stated that Azerbaijan can no longer afford to waste time, even though Armenia has not yet begun work on the economic and technical justification for the 42-kilometer section passing through Armenian territory.

“Of course, we cannot force Armenia to fulfill what they had previously committed to, and it is pointless to assume that we would invade (Armenia) to impose this by force. That is why we have turned to Iran, as a plan 'B' for establishing automobile and railway communications through Iranian territory,” he said.