YEREVAN—Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev made several incomprehensible statements on Sunday. He stated that Aliyev’s latest statement requires clarification as to whether he is abandoning the Brussels agreements.
According to Pashinyan, Azerbaijan may be walking away from the recent understandings reached with Armenia, in response to Aliyev’s latest threats of fresh military action against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
On May 28, Aliyev stated that besides recognizing Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh, Yerevan must also fulfill several other conditions set by Azerbaijan. This includes delimiting the Armenian-Azerbaijani border on Baku’s terms and opening a corridor to the Nakhichevan exclave, he added.
During a visit to the border town of Lachin, he further remarked, “They must not forget that Armenian villages are visible from here.”
Pashinyan stated that this threat contradicts the mutual recognition of each other’s territorial integrity, which he and Aliyev reaffirmed at their May 14 meeting in Brussels.
“I believe that Azerbaijan and our international partners should, at the very least, clarify whether this means a renunciation of the understandings reached in Brussels,” he addressed Armenian lawmakers. He emphasized the need for Armenian diplomats to seek an answer from their partners.
After the Brussels summit, Pashinyan confirmed his readiness to recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan through a peace treaty currently under discussion by Baku and Yerevan. He mentioned that the treaty should establish an international framework for addressing the rights and security of Karabakh’s Armenian population.
However, Aliyev appeared to once again reject any such mechanism on Sunday, stating that the Karabakh Armenians must dissolve their government bodies and unconditionally accept Azerbaijani rule.
“Everyone knows that we can carry out any military operation in that territory,” he warned. “That is why the Karabakh parliament must be dissolved, the individual who calls himself the president of Karabakh must surrender, and all ministers, deputies, and other officials must resign. Only then can there be talk of amnesty.”
On Monday, Karabakh President Arayik Harutyunyan rejected these threats. A spokesperson for Harutyunyan stated that Aliyev’s demands also imply his recognition of the legitimacy and importance of Karabakh’s institutions.
