Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry responds to Secretary of Armenian Security Council

Baku/05.06.23/Turan: Armenian Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan's statements in an interview with Armenia's Public TV on 4 June are yet another attempt to distort the essence of the issues discussed at the talks on a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia. This is said in a June 5 statement by the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.

Touching upon Grigoryan's statements on the procedure of border delimitation, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry recalls that following the Prague and Sochi meetings the delimitation should be based on mutual recognition of territorial integrity and sovereignty, in accord with the UN Charter and the Almaty Declaration.

At the same time, "no agreement was reached at either of these meetings to conduct delimitation on the basis of any map".

"According to international practice, unlike Armenia, the delimitation process which Azerbaijan has carried out with neighbouring countries so far has not been carried out on the basis of a specially selected map, but on the basis of analysis and consideration of all documents of legal significance.  This practice could also be applied in the case of Armenia. 

The Armenian side should start working on delimitation rather than insisting on the 1975 map. "We should not forget that Armenia has not responded for a long time to Azerbaijan's proposals to start delimitation of borders after the Patriotic War of 2020," the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"Armenia has occupied Azerbaijani territories for almost 30 years, still holds 8 Azerbaijani villages despite written and verbal agreements reached, does not withdraw its forces completely from Azerbaijani territory, continues military provocations, groundlessly accusing Azerbaijan of aggression," says the statement of the Foreign Ministry.

The Armenian side, contrary to item 9 of the November 2020 Trilateral Statement, has still not re-established transport links between western Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan.

The Foreign Ministry also called Grigoryan's claims "about the closure of the Lachin road" ridiculous, as dozens of Armenian residents freely cross the Lachin border crossing in both directions every day, following the relevant procedures.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry considers that the Armenian side, by misinterpreting the agreements reached, wants to evade its commitments, and this destructive activity does not serve the restoration of peace, but only harms Armenia itself.

Below cited are the main points made by Grigoryan:

- Progress has been recorded in Chisinau on the issue of delimitation on the 1975 map.

- Negotiations are taking place very intensively with the support of the international community. We are determined to sign a peace treaty as soon as possible, maybe before the end of this year.

- Last year in Brussels, Ilham Aliyev promised Charles Michel to release 10 Armenian prisoners of war, but this did not happen.

- One of the reasons for the September aggression was for Armenia to change its approach to unblocking communications.

- The priority was not to open the railway, but to fix the mode of operation of the communications.

- When the communications are opened, the entire process on the border will be controlled by Armenian services.

- Azerbaijan's public statements are very different from those at the negotiation table. -06В-