Ignoring This Fundamental Issue Is Equivalent to Not Seeing the Elephant in the Room: Amirbekov

Azerbaijan considers Armenia's proposal to sign a peace treaty unrealistic and unacceptable, as several important articles still remain uncoordinated. This was stated by Elchin Amirbekov, the special representative of the President of Azerbaijan, in an interview with Berliner Zeitung.

In response to a journalist's question about how Baku views Armenia's statement that it is ready to sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan even tomorrow, Amirbekov emphasized that he doubts the sincerity of this statement.

“Even the proposal to sign an unfinished, incomplete agreement tomorrow is not only unrealistic and unacceptable but also misleading. The parties still need to agree on several key provisions of the draft treaty that are open; without them, the document will be crude and incomplete,” he said.

According to Amirbekov, the main obstacle to achieving peace is “Armenia's still-existing territorial claims over Azerbaijan's internationally recognized sovereign territory, as reflected in Armenia's Constitution,” and “ignoring this fundamental issue is equivalent to not seeing the elephant in the room.”

“Armenia wants to deceive the international community by creating a false impression that it is constructively engaged in the peace process, but in reality, it is dragging its feet and steering the peace process into a dead end. It is evident that as soon as Armenia began to receive unlimited amounts of diplomatic, economic, and military assistance from the West, including the EU, the USA, and individual EU member states, it lost all interest in constructively participating in the negotiations, and seemingly, achieving peace with Azerbaijan is no longer a priority for it,” he noted.

In response to a journalist's question about whether the parties have agreed to remove the issue of the “Zangezur Corridor” from the scope of the peace agreement to expedite results, and whether it is possible to similarly postpone amendments to Armenia's Constitution after signing the peace agreement, Amirbekov stated that “it is absolutely wrong to draw a parallel between these two issues, as they are completely different in their importance for achieving sustainable peace.”

“If we leave the Constitution in its current form, then the peace treaty will be short-lived, as any new leadership in Armenia opposed to peace with Azerbaijan will simply annul it, citing the agreement's inconsistency with the highest legal authority of the Constitution. In other words, Azerbaijan wants to make peace not with Prime Minister Pashinyan, but with Armenia,” he emphasized.

According to Amirbekov, for this, Azerbaijan cannot allow legal gaps that could lead to the resurgence of conflict and new tragedies over time, “therefore the root cause of the long-standing Armenia-Azerbaijan confrontation must be eliminated.” Regarding the “Zangezur Corridor,” the Azerbaijani president's representative added that official Baku still places great significance on its opening.

“However, by agreeing to remove it from the scope of the peace agreement, Azerbaijan does not want to be criticized for undermining the negotiations around the peace agreement,” noted the Azerbaijani side.