Aliyev on Unresolved Points of Peace Agreement Between Azerbaijan and Armenia

Azerbaijan and Armenia have agreed on 15 out of 17 articles in the draft peace treaty, said President Ilham Aliyev in an interview on Wednesday with Russian TV channel VGTRK and news agency RIA Novosti.

One of the unresolved articles concerns the mutual abstention from filing international lawsuits against each other. According to Aliyev, "this is a mutually acceptable article." "We recently completed an analysis of the damage caused, which took us 4 years. The damage amounts to more than $150 billion - damage that was inflicted during the years of occupation. Therefore, abstaining from mutual lawsuits would be mutually acceptable," Aliyev said.

Another unresolved article pertains to the deployment of representatives from other countries along the border. "Under the guise of European observers, NATO infrastructure has been created on the Armenian side of the border," Aliyev stated. The issue of sending these observers was agreed upon with Azerbaijan in October 2022, on the condition that a limited EU contingent would stay there for only two months.

Two other conditions that Armenia must meet are: changing its constitution, which references the Declaration of Independence that contains territorial claims against Azerbaijan. The former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region is declared as part of Armenia in this declaration. "Therefore, changing the constitution is not our whim, but an objective requirement," Aliyev emphasized.

The second condition for Azerbaijan is the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group, as it is no longer functional. "If Armenia has recognized Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan, and the Minsk Group was created to address the Karabakh issue, then what is its purpose now? Armenia's reluctance to dissolve the OSCE Minsk Group suggests that the plans of the revanchists are quite serious," Aliyev stated.