Azerbaijan says Armenia preventing signing of peace agreement

ISTANBUL (AA) – Azerbaijan has said that Armenia is preventing the signing of a peace agreement and is refusing to participate in a third round of negotiations.

“The active phase for the signing of this (peace) agreement is now behind us. The Armenian side is currently preventing the signing of the peace agreement and we also saw that they refused to participate in the third round of negotiations,” Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said in a joint news conference in the capital Baku with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday.

Bayramov said they discussed the current situation in the South Caucasus region during a meeting which also emphasized the importance of tripartite agreements.

He also said they addressed the issues related to the post-conflict period and efforts for the signing of a peace agreement between Baku and Yerevan, adding that Azerbaijan is ready to take part in trilateral talks but Yerevan has not given a final answer.

“The issue regarding the illegal activities of Armenia in the Azerbaijani lands, which was once occupied, should be discussed at the legal level. The peace deal has no impact on the signing process, but it is negotiated separately,” Bayramov further said regarding the arbitration case filed by Baku against Yerevan on Monday for exploiting energy resources in the Karabakh region, which was under 30 years of Armenian occupation.

Lavrov said there was an agreement last December between all sides to hold the next trilateral talks in Moscow but Armenia informed Russia they could not attend the meeting.

“The Armenian side has also stated that it does not object to this, but has not given a final answer for now. I do not think we will insist on providing our services. However, these proposals are well known to both parties,” he said.

Lavrov also noted that the function of the Lachin road, connecting Armenia to the Karabakh region, must comply with the tripartite declaration of November 2020, which underlined the importance of “ensuring humanitarian aid and civilians pass through the Lachin road without exception.”

“We are trying to achieve this through our contacts and primarily through peacekeeping forces. The establishment of any checkpoints there (in Karabakh) is not being discussed. However, it is possible to eliminate the suspicion that the corridor is not used in accordance with its purpose with technical means. We touched on that today,” he further said.

Bayramov and Lavrov later attended the third meeting of the Russia-Azerbaijan Expert Council, where bilateral relations and further development of cooperation between Azerbaijani and Russian experts were discussed.