Swiss legislator lauds Armenia’s goodwill in reaching peace with Azerbaijan as soon as possible

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 22, ARMENPRESS. Swiss lawmaker Stefan Müller-Altermatt has lauded Armenia’s intention to reach a peace agreement with Azerbaijan as soon as possible and the demonstration of goodwill. 

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has numerously offered Azerbaijan to sign a peace treaty with all the articles that have been agreed upon so far and leave the few unresolved points for further discussions. Azerbaijan has rejected the offer.

Stefan Müller-Altermatt, a member of the National Council of Switzerland’s Federal Assembly, told Armenpress that Armenia must not be seen as an obstacle to peace.

He warned that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev could continue making demands.

“The intention to reach a peace agreement as soon as possible and the demonstration of goodwill is correct. Armenia must not be seen as an obstacle to peace. At the same time, it must also be clear which points Armenia itself does not yet consider to be settled. The West needs clear signals in this regard so that it can act. The fact that Azerbaijan is still holding Armenian prisoners of war and that Armenian cultural heritage is being destroyed in Nagorno-Karabakh should be back on the negotiating agenda, as should the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh. When talking to my colleagues or our foreign minister, for example, I repeatedly experience a great deal of ignorance about what has happened. Aliyev has succeeded in pushing the red lines in his favour. He was even able to carry out ethnic cleansing with impunity. Armenia must now insist that the red lines are not pushed even further," the Swiss lawmaker said. 

Asked to give his opinion about why Baku is rejecting the offer and what this refusal could lead to, the Swiss legislator warned that the Azeri leader Aliyev knows full well that he is in a superior military position and will continue making demands. 

“Aliyev knows full well that he is in a superior military position. He will make his demands until every one of them is met - if at all, because the dictator always needs an enemy to secure his power. And if they cannot be achieved through negotiation, then he will get them by force after presenting himself as a respectable member of the international community at COP29 and bribing a number of Western politicians. That is relatively simple and clear. And that is precisely why it is now important for Armenia to say clearly: ‘Watch out, this man is constantly crossing red lines!’ We absolutely must ensure that the world realizes that the current threats are not the beginning of Aliyev's aggression, but the continuation of his policy of hatred against the Armenians and that he should have been sanctioned and brought to The Hague long ago," Stefan Müller-Altermatt added.