YEREVAN — While Armenia considers the latest five-point proposal by Azerbaijan for starting peace talks to be acceptable, it still believes that it fails to fully address the possible peace agenda, the country’s foreign minister has said.
“Ultimately, there is nothing inadmissible in Azerbaijan’s proposal that was passed to Yerevan on March 10 except that these issues do not fully address the possible agenda of comprehensive peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and our answers were aimed at completing that agenda,” Ararat Mirzoyan said in the National Assembly on Monday.
Armenia’s Foreign Ministry said on March 14 that it had applied to the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs (the United States, Russia and France) requesting that they organize Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations on a peace treaty “on the basis of the UN Charter, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Helsinki Final Act.”
“We consider the rights of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh and the addressing of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh to be key and fundamental. We are ready to start negotiations on this complete basis and it is with this proposal that we applied to the OSCE Minsk Group,” the minister said, answering questions of lawmakers.
He stressed that negotiations have not started yet.
“Once political settlement is acceptable to the parties, it should be put on paper and fixed in an agreement… We do not make any contradiction between territorial integrity and the right [of peoples] to self-determination or in the demarcation of borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan. We strongly believe that it does not concern the rights of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenians, their status, etc.,” Mirzoyan stressed.
The top Armenian diplomat again reminded that Armenia does not regard the Nagorno-Karabakh issue as a territorial dispute or a matter of territorial encroachment on Azerbaijan.
“It is solely and fully a question of the rights of Nagorno-Karabakh,” Mirzoyan underscored.
The OSCE Minsk Group has not yet responded to Armenia’s application. Azerbaijan has not responded to Armenia’s offer to hold peace talks on the basis of the Minsk Group either.
Earlier on Monday it was reported that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held separate telephone conversations with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts. The subject of a possible peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan was reportedly discussed during both phone calls.
Mirzoyan and Lavrov discussed an array of issues related to the Armenian-Russian cooperation, mutual visits and the events that will mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and Russia.
Mirzoyan and Lavrov discussed also the status of the agreements reached by the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia on November 9, 2020, January 11 and November 26, 2021.
The Armenian Foreign Minister was said to speak about the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and in Nagorno-Karabakh created as a result of Azerbaijani provocations and violation of the ceasefire.
Mirzoyan also presented to his colleague the position of the Armenian side regarding the start of negotiations on a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan. In this context, the role of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group was given importance
The interlocutors touched upon the process of normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations. An exchange of views took place on issues of regional and international security.
