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United Nations:
A “partial peace” with Armenia is unlikely, Azerbaijan’s foreign minister told the annual gathering of the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday, after Yerevan offered a more optimistic message.
The two former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan have seen decades of war and tension over the ethnic Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
After a series of slow-moving negotiations, Azerbaijan sent in troops last year and quickly seized the region, whose entire population of about 120,000 fled to Armenia.
“Partial peace is not an option after so much pain and suffering… territorial claims against neighbors,” Jehon Biramov told the gathering, insisting specifically on changing Armenia’s constitution, meaning Nagorno-Karabakh. There is “reunification” with Karabakh. .
Azerbaijan’s lightning strike came to light last year during high-level UN meetings in New York, sparking mistrust and anger among Western diplomats, particularly US and French officials, who have opposed mediation efforts. I was deeply involved.
On Thursday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said peace with Azerbaijan was “not only possible, but within reach.”
Both Azerbaijan and Armenia say the agreement is 80 percent ready, including border clarifications, but Azerbaijan wants all issues resolved first.
In his address to the United Nations, Pashinyan said he was ready to meet the Baku government’s key demand to allow transportation access across Armenian territory to Nakhchivan, giving Azerbaijan its central territory. should be allowed to connect with traditional ally Turkey.
Pashinyan insisted that Azerbaijan and Armenia should immediately sign the draft agreement, explaining, “There is no precedent for a peace agreement or an agreement that regulates and resolves everything.”
But on Saturday, Bayramov said that finalizing a deal would require Armenia to “once and for all abandon its territorial claims against Azerbaijan through the implementation of constitutional amendments,” so Baku’s regional Integrity will not remain within “legal boundaries.”
He also accused Yerevan of “dramatically increasing” its military budget and “acquiring large quantities of offensive weapons from both traditional and new suppliers.”
Byaramov nevertheless acknowledged “significant progress” in the neighbors’ efforts to normalize relations, and called for “fast steps” to complete the process “at this critical moment.”
Any changes to Armenia’s constitution must be made through a referendum, a lengthy and uncertain process. Western diplomats said they saw the request as demanding the impossible for Baku to avoid signing a deal.
Potentially speeding up a deal is COP29, the UN’s annual climate change talks that bring together officials from around the world, which will take place in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, in November.
The international community is putting extra pressure on Baku to reach an agreement before COP29.
(Other than the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
