Azerbaijan Continues to Refuse to Sign Peace Treaty: Zurabyan

What Nikol Pashinyan presents as achieved peace is actually a significant pre-election deception unrelated to the establishment of peace and cannot even be considered a plan to achieve it for three fundamental reasons. This was stated by Levon Zurabyan, Vice President of the National Assembly of Armenia, on his Facebook page.

“1. The peace treaty has not been signed, and Azerbaijan continues to refuse to sign it despite the significant concessions already made by Armenia. Turkey does not open its border, Azerbaijan continues to torture the leaders of Artsakh and Armenian military captives in its prisons, and builds criminal charges against Armenia.

2. The agreements in Washington have a unilateral nature, disregarding the growing geopolitical alliance of BRICS, including the interests of our strategic allies Russia and India and strategic partners China and Iran. Such a unilateral settlement places a geopolitical bomb under the peace establishment process, significantly increasing the risks of Armenia becoming a proxy war battleground.

3. The concessions made by the Armenian leadership threaten the core of the Armenian state's identity. Under Azerbaijan's pressure, the refusal from the Declaration of Independence and the removal of components related to our historical identity from our state symbols is tantamount to the denial of our own history and national identity, which has long-term goals of weakening and disbanding the Armenian state.

Our peace plan envisages the creation of a Zangezur transport hub, signing a ‘Deal of the Armenian Era’ with major geopolitical players, and creating an international consortium with their participation, which, in addition to the railway provided for by the TRIPP program, should construct and operate the Northeast railway, highway, and optical fiber broadband connection.

This plan has the following advantages:

1. Its implementation will improve balance in the region and force Azerbaijan to abandon its political strategy of endless pressure and demands on Armenia, leading it to the signing of the peace treaty.

2. Armenia will transform from a geopolitical confrontation zone to a zone of cooperation and development, creating prospects for stable and lasting peace.

3. Armenia will exit its actual blockade and, stepping out of the status of economic obscurity, will become one of the rapidly developing hubs of the global economy, also raising its weight in international politics.

4. Armenia will not be forced to make humiliating concessions that threaten our national identity and the existence of the Armenian state.

Thus, we propose the only real and realistic peace plan, contrasting with the significant pre-election deception presented by Pashinyan under the guise of ‘peace,’” wrote Levon Zurabyan, Vice President of the National Assembly.