Armenian Security Council Secretary says peace treaty with Azerbaijan will create security guarantees

YEREVAN, January 9. /ARKA/. After responding to Azerbaijan’s latest peace treaty proposals on January 4, Armenia is now waiting for Azerbaijan’s response to its package of proposals,  Armenian Security Council Armen Grigoryan said in an interview with the Public Television of Armenia.

Grgoryan said also that the parties have agreed that their border delimitation and demarcation commissions will meet at the end of January.

‘The dynamics is positive, but there are  certain unresolved issues but we hope to make progress on them in the near future. We hope that it will be possible to finalize the peace treaty and conclude it in a short time," Grigoryan said.

According to him, some issues were agreed upon verbally, and were  not reflected in writing.

The Security Council Secretary expressed confidence that a document fully corresponding to Armenia's interests will be signed, downplaying opposition's concerns that the future peace treaty will not be in line with Armenia’s national interests.

"The treaty will create security guarantees for Armenia," Grigoryan said, adding that the issue of providing Azerbaijan with an extraterritorial corridor through Armenia is not included in the document.

He also assured that Azerbaijanis recognize four principles fundamental to Armenia: sovereignty, jurisdiction, reciprocity and equality, which will be fixed during the negotiations.

"We hope that the issue of the Armenian captives held in Azerbaijan will be solved before the conclusion of the peace agreement and  23 captives (the captivity of whom  is confirmed by Azerbaijan) will return home," Grigoryan said.

He noted that the peace treaty has a reference to the Almaty Declaration, according to which the borders of Armenia and Azerbaijan are recognized within their borders when they were constituent Soviet republics.