YEREVAN — Andranik Kocharyan, a senior Armenian pro-government lawmaker, stated that Armenia’s acceptance of the invitation to attend the COP29 global climate summit, scheduled to take place in Baku in November, hinges on Azerbaijan demonstrating a commitment to peace with Armenia.
“They should change their rhetoric and seek peace the way we do,” Kocharyan told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Kocharyan did not explicitly specify whether this means Baku should drop its preconditions for the signing of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty or release the Armenian prisoners, including eight former leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh, still detained in Azerbaijan. He remarked only that their continuing captivity is an “obstacle to achieving peace.”
Armenia dropped its objections to Azerbaijan’s bid to host the United Nations summit last December as part of a deal that resulted in the release of 32 Armenian soldiers and civilians held in Azerbaijani captivity.
Hikmet Hajiyev, a senior aide to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, announced over the weekend that the invitation had been sent to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, describing it as an “illustration of Azerbaijan’s goodwill.”
As of Tuesday evening, the Foreign Ministry in Yerevan had not indicated whether Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan would accept the invitation.
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