Armenia still seeks 'guarantor institution' for Karabakh Armenians

Baku/26.06.23/Turan: "For us the protection of Armenian rights is the most important issue. This issue cannot be simply forgotten, it is self-defeating". This was stated by Armenian Parliament Speaker Alain Simonyan to journalists today when asked "whether Baku will eventually agree to the introduction of an international mechanism" for Baku-Hankendi dialogue.

 "I don't know whether the issue will be included in a peace treaty or it will be a separate document, but there must be a guarantor institution. We already have a fact with the Trilateral Declaration, points of which are not implemented, and the guarantor country has not taken or cannot take action," Simonyan said ahead of the next round of talks between the Armenian and Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers starting on June 27 in Washington.

To his thinking, the statement of Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov that no additional security guarantees for the Armenian population of Karabakh "are out of the question" is damaging for the Azerbaijani side, because in case of such a reality they will not solve the issue, which has been the cause of the problem for decades. "This is a departure from reality, the issue will not be solved this way," Simonyan said.

At the same time, he noted that "negotiations are going on quite intensively, and at the moment I see that there is progress."

Armenia's demands for some kind of international guarantees for the rights and security of Karabakh Armenians are unacceptable, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said earlier.

"We do not accept such preconditions or pretexts from the Republic of Armenia for a number of reasons," he said in an interview with Reuters on 23 June.

"The most fundamental thing is this: it is an internal, sovereign issue. Azerbaijan's constitution and a number of international conventions to which Azerbaijan is a party provide all the necessary conditions to guarantee the rights of this population," he continued.

He said ethnic Armenians can still use and receive education in their native language and preserve their culture if they integrate into Azerbaijani society and state structures, as do other ethnic and religious minorities.

However, Bayramov, ahead of a Washington meeting with Armenia's Foreign Minister scheduled for next week, said "a peace agreement is quite achievable if Armenia is willing to take certain steps." -06В-