Armenian Foreign Minister comments on Azerbaijan's preconditions for signing peace treaty
YEREVAN, April 16. /ARKA/. The positions of Armenia and Azerbaijan on two key issues of dissolving the OSCE Minsk Group and the Constitution of Armenia are well known, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said.
“We tried to achieve some progress with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov (during a meeting at the Antalya forum),” Mirzoyan said. “It would be an exaggeration to say that a final solution has been reached. But I think the dialogue should continue. If we achieve a legal conclusion to a conflict that has already been effectively resolved and officially declare its institutional conclusion as something that can be embodied in the signing of a peace treaty, then there will be no need for an international format designed to resolve this conflict.”
According to him, the continued existence of the OSCE Minsk Group will not bring any additional value in such a scenario and may even prove counterproductive after the signing of a peace agreement.
"We are ready to proceed with the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group and are ready to sign the relevant documents on the same day as the peace agreement with Azerbaijan, in any order," Mirzoyan added.
As for the amendments to the Constitution of Armenia, he stressed the importance of understanding the sincerity of Azerbaijan's concerns.
"If these concerns are just a tool used by Azerbaijan to delay the negotiations and avoid signing a peace agreement, that is one thing. But if they are truly concerned, that is another matter. We are ready to provide explanations. There are no requirements in our Constitution that could threaten the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan," Mirzoyan said.
He recalled that the Constitutional Court of Armenia has already issued a positive conclusion on the joint work of the Armenian and Azerbaijani border commissions, which essentially had similar content. According to the court, the demarcation of the borders should be based on the Almaty Declaration, which recognizes the territorial integrity of both countries within the borders that existed at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
"We believe that after the signing of the peace agreement, the Constitutional Court will make a similar decision regarding the borders. We also have concerns about the Constitution of Azerbaijan. But the fastest and most effective way to resolve these concerns is to sign a peace agreement," Mirzoyan said.
He noted that the Armenian government has been discussing constitutional reform since 2018. Internal rules may be revised, and the Declaration of Independence may also be revised.
"Our constitutional reform process does not imply that we consider Azerbaijan's concerns to be justified," Mirzoyan explained.
On the Constitution
Earlier, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that the strategic goal of adopting the new Constitution is to move from the "relic period" of a stateless state to a functioning, state-oriented society.
He also noted that the discussions between Armenia and Azerbaijan do not include the issue of amending the Armenian Constitution or any timeframe for such a process.
At the same time, Pashinyan emphasized that the Constitution of Armenia does not contain territorial claims against Azerbaijan or any other country, unlike the Constitution of Azerbaijan, which contains territorial claims against Armenia.
