Deputy Speaker warns against tit-for-tat responses to Azerbaijani statements

Armenian Parliament Deputy Speaker Vahagn Aleksanyan (Civil Contract) has said that responding in kind to statements from Baku that undermine, or are interpreted as undermining, the peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan is the wrong approach.

He said it is necessary to act calmly and through diplomatic channels.

Aleksanyan addressed statements coming from Azerbaijan and the Armenian side’s response to them during a press briefing.

He said that little time had passed since the end of the conflict, wounds were still fresh in both societies, and the same statement could be perceived differently by the two sides.

Responding to a question about whether peace was “one-sided”, Aleksanyan disagreed with that assessment.

“There is no such thing as one-sided peace. And the peace that exists now is not one-sided either; it is bilateral, because if, for example, one side of the border did not fire in the opposite direction while the other side did, that would not be peace. The fact is that there is no shooting from either side of the border, and there is peace,” he said.

Aleksanyan acknowledged that statements are being made in Azerbaijan that could be interpreted as undermining the peace process. At the same time, he stressed that responding to such statements in kind could have negative consequences.