Slowing down peace agreement signing with Azerbaijan - detrimental for Armenia
By Trend
The second Karabakh war, which took place two years ago and ended with Azerbaijan's historic victory, paved the way for new reality in the South Caucasus, Azerbaijani MP Vugar Iskandarov told Trend.
"President Ilham Aliyev’s visit to Brussels, as well as the results achieved at the meetings with President of the European Council Charles Michel and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is yet another diplomatic success of Azerbaijan, said the MP. "The statement, made by Charles Michel following the trilateral Brussels meeting, testifies to the world community’s accepting the new reality."
President Ilham Aliyev raised various issues of primary importance during an interview with Italian “Il Sole 24 Ore” newspaper in Cernobbio on September 2. The head of state outlined the existence of favorable conditions for signing a peace agreement.
"The peacebuilding process will yield good results if Armenia doesn’t try to delay achieving the sustainable peace once again. The sooner Armenia accepts this new reality, the better it will be for the country. Because inappropriate stubbornness, revanchism, as well as slowing peace process further exacerbate Armenia's situation,” Iskandarov said.
The MP noted that the attempts of the Armenian authorities, making every effort to stop the peace process, are doomed to fail.
"Just like previous meetings, the fourth August 31 meeting ended in failure of Armenia's efforts. On the other hand, Azerbaijan took up a decisive and fair position. The admirable statecraft of President Ilham Aliyev is yielding good results on the world scale," Iskandarov added.
The MP stressed that the head of state expresses his resolute position during each visit, at each international event, and in each interview with foreign media outlets.
"While being interviewed by the Italian newspaper, President Ilham Aliyev underscored that the situation in the region is developing towards peace. The head of state also emphasized that “We agreed that within one month foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia will meet in order to start practical discussions on peace agreement. That was our proposal from almost immediately after the second Karabakh war ended, we said that we need peace. We need a peace agreement, and it took almost two years for Armenia to agree with that," he stated.
As President Aliyev stated, this was one of the most important outcomes of the Brussels meeting. The head of state also noted that “I think that we can finalize and sign a peace agreement within several months. I think this is realistic if the Armenian side expresses the same will, because we introduced five basic principles, which peace agreement should be based on, and Armenia accepted them".
"We believe that Armenia will finally find the power to take a right step after all its failure attempts," Iskandarov said.
According to the MP, another essential point in the interview was the implementation of large-scale infrastructure projects in Azerbaijan’s liberated territories, as well as the Zangazur corridor.
"The head of state said that building the new infrastructure connecting Azerbaijan, Armenia and our other neighbors was part of the trilateral declaration, which was signed just after the end of the war. And Azerbaijan already started large-scale infrastructure projects on the liberated territories. We already inaugurated the first international airport, and the second international airport’s runway is already operational. Soon, we will inaugurate it. We build electric lines, power stations, highways, tunnels, bridges, and railroads. So, all is in the process. Of course, we build all this not only for connectivity with the neighbors, for internal use, but also Zangazur corridor, which will connect Azerbaijan with its Autonomous Republic of Nakhchivan through Armenia, is also part of our efforts. Thus, we can see that the far-sighted policy of President Ilham Aliyev is gradually yielding results," he said.
Political observer Elchin Mirzabeyli told Trend that the Brussels meeting can be considered successful in terms of promoting the principles put forward by official Baku and accepted by the opposite side.
"One of the crucial points is reaching the consensus to establish groups for developing the peace agreement within a month through the ministries of foreign affairs of both countries. Given Armenia’s attempts to avoid the peace agreement, as well as to justify its unrealistic claims such as the "unresolved conflict", numerous destructive actions of regional and extra-regional actors seeking to turn the South Caucasus once again into a training ground for their interests, we can say that the fourth meeting exceeded all the expectations,” Mirzabayli said.
The observer outlined the significance of the "Revenge" operation’s results directed against the provocations of the Armenian separatist-terrorist groups and illegal military formations. All attempts aimed to stop the peace process and change the regional agenda have failed.
The political analyst emphasized that neither Karabakh nor the OSCE Minsk Group is mentioned in the statement of the European Council’s president.
"Thus, it has once again been confirmed that the Minsk Group format has already become history, and Karabakh issues are nothing but Azerbaijan’s internal affairs. The EU mediation format in the normalization of Azerbaijan-Armenia relations is based on five main principles put forward by Azerbaijan. Achieving progress in all areas addressed at the meeting, including issues related to the border delimitation, opening of communications, de-mining territories, as well as to Azerbaijani citizens who went missing in the first Karabakh war, to the positive development of the situation. In my opinion, Charles Michel’s efforts to establish peace between the two countries are also highly commendable," he added.
"The opinions of the head of state and the statements made by him demonstrate Azerbaijan’s striving for the earliest possible development of a peace agreement. As a result of the well-thought-out policy of President Ilham Aliyev, Armenia agreed to start practical negotiations on a peace agreement within a month at the level of the foreign ministers of both countries. Slowing down processes, creating artificial barriers will work primarily to the detriment of Armenia itself," said Mirzabayli.
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