Tofik Zulfugarov: It seems that conditions have been created for signing framework peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia

Baku/20.04.23/Turan: The only active mediator in the Azerbaijani-Armenian peace process today is the United States. This opinion was expressed by former Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Tofik Zulfugarov in an interview with Turan, commenting on the visits and negotiations in recent days of Washington's official representatives to the region.

"The mediation of the European Union was not accepted because of the position of France. At the moment, Russia's mediation is also not active. At present, only US mediation is on the agenda," he said.

According to Zulfugarov, a framework peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia is currently being discussed.

Armenia should recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan in a bilateral document, and not only referring to the Alma-Ata Agreement of 1991 and the UN Charter. "Since there is a conflict between the two countries and the issue of territorial integrity should be reflected in a bilateral document," he stressed.

Armenia believed that the rights and security of the Armenians of Karabakh should be reflected in the peace agreement and discussions should be conducted with international mediation. Azerbaijan did not accept this position as stating that this is an internal matter of Azerbaijan.

At the moment when the US representatives (Luis Bono and Erica Lawson) were in Yerevan, Prime Minister Pashinyan said that Armenia was ready to recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. This gives reason to believe that an agreement has been reached and there are conditions for signing a framework peace agreement.

"But the implementation of the agreement will take a long time. It is necessary to start the process of delimitation and demarcation of the border, restoration and opening of communications. The signing of a peace agreement simply means a certain stage. The document will create the basis for the post-conflict period to define the principles for resolving the conflict," Zulfugarov said. -03-