Armenian Foreign Ministry responds to Azerbaijani FM’s statement

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 4, ARMENPRESS. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Vahan Hunanyan answered the questions of ARMENPRESS State News Agency on the statements of the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov.

ARMENPRESS:Referring to the delimitation process between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan once again stated that the Armenian side puts forward "preconditions", claiming that “Armenia has no legal, political or moral right to impose any conditions on the issue of delimitation of the borders.”

How would you comment on that?

Vahan Hunanyan:On November 26, 2021, the Prime Minister of Armenia, the President of Russia and the President of Azerbaijan signed a statement in Sochi, which is public and available on the internet. It is clearly underlined in the statement that the leaders of the three countries agreed to undertake steps towards increasing the level of security and stability in the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, and to lead the process to the formation of a bilateral commission on delimitation and demarcation.

It derives from the statement signed by the leaders of the three countries that the activities of the commission on delimitation and demarcation should be preceded by the agreements on steps towards increasing the level of security on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and the implementation of those agreements. It is also logical amid the fact that it is difficult to imagine the implementation of delimitation in the borders where ceasefire violations are observed every day.

The Republic of Armenia, being really interested in the full implementation of the agreements, has formulated its notions for their implementation.

The Azerbaijani side did not give any substantive response and rejected them, without offering any options for implementing the agreements reached by the leaders of the three countries.

Naming Armenia's proposals "condition", "precondition" and then making moral, political and legal assessments on them has no logical link to the above-mentioned process.

ARMENPRESS:The Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan also accused Armenia in “undermining the activities of the trilateral working group.” What would you comment on this?

Vahan Hunanyan:If it is referred to the trilateral working group on unblocking regional communications, ironically, on the same morning Prime Minister Pashinyan announced at the Cabinet meeting that Armenia is in the stage of undertaking practical steps towards restoring the Yeraskh-Julfa-Ordubad-Meghri-Horadiz railway, and that the Armenian Co-Chair of the working group, Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan had a substantive discussion on this topic with his Russian counterpart, Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk, and Director General of “Russian Railways” Oleg Belozyorov on February 2 in Yerevan.

Assessing the situation, Prime Minister Pashinyan stated that the first results of the work of the Trilateral Working Group seem very close. In this context, the statements of the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan are at least paradoxical, and we hope that they do not mean Azerbaijan's renunciation of the agreements on the reopening of the railway reached in Brussels. I would like to note that the Republic of Armenia reaffirms its commitment to the agreements, which the Prime Minister publicly stated several times.

It should be noted that Armenia has also made proposals to the Azerbaijani side on the opening of the roads. We have not received any response from the Azerbaijani side to these proposals yet. Armenia is ready to start implementing these proposals as soon as possible.