Russia Offers to Serve as Platform for Baku-Yerevan Talks
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Russia's proposal to act as a forum for talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan on a peace treaty is still in effect, a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said on Thursday.
"If Armenian partners are really interested in solving the outlined problems within the framework of the comprehensive implementation of trilateral agreements at the highest level, then instead of engaging in scholasticism, it is necessary to continue joint work. Russia's proposal to provide a platform for Armenian-Azerbaijani talks on a peace treaty stands," the diplomat said.
Zakharova recalled that a meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani top diplomats s on the peace treaty was scheduled for December 23, 2022 in Moscow, and the two leaders agreed to it. "Everything was prepared for it. But it was the Armenian leadership who at the last moment canceled the arrival of its Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan. This hindered the discussion not only of the peace agreement, but also of other pressing issues of Armenian-Azerbaijani normalization, including the situation around the Lachin corridor," TASScited the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman as saying.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at a January 10 press conference that Yerevan was ready to sign a document on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict within the framework of Russia's proposals. Commenting on this statement, Zakharova noted that it was difficult to assess the Armenian side's position when official Yerevan's statements on the same issue differed significantly. "During the aforementioned press conference, the Armenian Prime Minister spoke both about the intention to sign a document based on Russian proposals and at the same time about the preference for some kind of 'comprehensive solution' to the conflict promoted by the West," she recalled.
According to Zakharova, Yerevan's agreement to base the peace treaty with Baku on the Alma-Ata Protocols of 1991, which was enshrined in the statement on the results of the summit in Prague in October 2022, radically changed the logic of the negotiation process. "The Alma-Ata Protocols confirmed the inviolability of the borders that existed between the republics of the Soviet Union. At that time, the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region was part of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. Of course, this fact is very difficult to ignore in the peace process between Baku and Yerevan," she added.
