Azernews.Az

A peace deal was within reach if Armenia was ready to take certain steps, Azernews reports, citing Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov's interview with Reuters on 21 June.

"If there is a willingness not only to make statements but also to take some practical steps, I think an agreement could potentially be reached even before the end of the year," Jeyhun Bayramov said.

"But if there is no real willingness ... then it could be later," he added.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister said there had been "some progress" in the peace talks and that Baku was keen to strike a deal, but also made comments that showed how wide the gap was before he would meet his Armenian counterpart for further talks in Washington next week:

"Why did it take the Armenian prime minister two and a half years (since the end of the war) to say that he had effectively recognized Azerbaijan's sovereignty and territorial integrity?"

Bayramov, who traveled to London for a conference on Ukraine's reconstruction, also complained about the continued presence of thousands of Armenian troops on Azerbaijani territory.

Moscow (which has peacekeepers on the ground), Washington, and the European Union are separately trying to help bring lasting peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which have endured two wars since the early 1990s and are still exchanging fire from time to time.

After fierce fighting and a Russian-brokered ceasefire in 2020, Azerbaijan seized territories controlled by ethnic Armenians in and around the mountain enclave.

Since then, the two sides have been discussing a peace agreement in which they would agree on borders, resolve differences over the enclave and unfreeze relations.

It seemed like a breakthrough: last month Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said Armenia did accept that Karabakh was part of Azerbaijan, but wanted Baku to provide guarantees for its ethnic Armenian population.

However, in an interview with Reuters, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said such a guarantee was unnecessary and the demand amounted to interference in Azerbaijan's affairs.

"We do not accept such a precondition ... for a number of reasons," he said.

"The most fundamental is the following: this is an internal, sovereign issue. Azerbaijan's constitution and a number of international conventions to which Azerbaijan is a party provide all the necessary conditions to guarantee the rights of this population."

He said ethnic Armenians can still use and receive education in their native language and preserve their culture, as long as they are integrated into Azerbaijani society and state structures, like other ethnic and religious minorities.

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