By: K. KHODANIAN
While Armenia is willing to sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan as soon as possible, Azeri President Aliyev continues to put forward new preconditions. Although lately, we haven’t heard about the “Zangezur Corridor,” which remains rejected and a “red line” by the Armenian authorities, other preconditions are set, which are also difficult to implement. Among these conditions is the amendment of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia. Aliyev objects that there are provisions in the constitution directed against the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. He is referring to the mention of the unification of Armenia and Artsakh in the preamble of the Constitution. Aliyev knows very well that constitutional changes will take many years. Therefore, there is a clear purpose in that precondition: delaying the peace treaty, waiting for more favorable times, and/or resorting to military operations.
The leadership of Armenia has stated many times that although the amendment of the Constitution is on the agenda, it is an internal matter of the country. The amendment of the Constitution will undoubtedly face another important difficulty. The people of Armenia will never vote for a new constitution if it is imposed by Azerbaijan.
Recently, Aliyev also raised the issue of dissolving the Minsk Group and demanded that Yerevan and Azerbaijan jointly take this step. The Minsk Group was the body in which the co-chair countries – Russia, the United States, and France – tried to resolve the Nagorno Karabakh issue peacefully since 1992. Armenia is not in favor of the liquidation proposal so far.
Azerbaijan is proposing that both countries agree on the main points of the peace agreement and initial it as a “goodwill” expression before the COP29 international summit of the United Nations, which is dedicated to the issue of climate change, to be held in Baku. The Azeri side attaches great importance to this meeting and tries to present its country in the best light and show the world that it is striving for peace with its neighbors. Recently, it became known that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, Ararat Mirzoyan, has received an invitation to participate in the COP29 meeting. So far, Yerevan has not responded to that invitation. However, it should not be surprising that the invitation may be accepted in exchange for certain conditions, including the release of the political and military leadership of Artsakh, especially since there is such a precedent. The hosting of the COP29 meeting was granted to Azerbaijan only after Armenia revoked its veto in exchange for the release of Armenian prisoners of war.
And the last hint of Aliyev’s thought is that Yerevan should answer how the Azerbaijanis can return to their “historical lands.” He considers historical lands the villages where a certain number of Azerbaijanis lived before the First Karabakh War.
It is clear that the Azerbaijani side is trying to delay the signing of the peace agreement and is attempting to gain time until the COP29 summit to be held in November and, according to many, the American presidential elections to be held in the same month, in the hope that Donald Trump will return to the White House and the American pressure will weaken. Until then, Aliyev, with his recent preconditions, will continue, figuratively speaking, to move the goalpost of the peace process.
“MASSIS”
