Azerbaijan and Armenia should conclude peace treaty without third countries – I.Aliyev

Baku/11.01.24/Turan: Negotiations on a peace treaty with Armenia were conducted and are being conducted against the background of pressure on Azerbaijan. This was stated by head of state Ilham Aliyev in an interview with local TV channels on January 10.

After the September operation in Karabakh, the UN and the European Union promised the Armenians to impose sanctions against Azerbaijan. This created an illusion among the Armenians that a peace treaty would be concluded on their terms, Aliyev said. However, this did not happen. All this time, Yerevan has been waiting and has not responded to Baku's proposals for a peace treaty for 70 days.

In the latest version, there is not a word from Yerevan about the Karabakh Armenians, although Armenia previously insisted on a clause on the rights of Karabakh Armenians. This clause was removed after Baku's demands to include in the treaty a clause on the rights of Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia.

"Now the conditions have been created for signing a peace treaty. However, there is a condition on the Armenian side that there be guarantors of the peace treaty. But we believe that this is not necessary," Aliyev said. He explained his position as saying that external players are competing with each other, trying to take the process into their own hands.

"We do not want the relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan to become the subject of geopolitical contradictions or interests. Two sovereign states can come to an agreement between themselves," he stressed. -0-