Pashinyan expects Armenia and Azerbaijan to sign a peace treaty before the end of the year

Oct. 26 () –

The Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinián, stressed this Wednesday before Parliament that he hopes that the peace treaty with Azerbaijan will be signed before the end of the year and, in this sense, he will do everything possible, together with his Government, so that be.

“I have to say it honestly: I want and would like (the agreement) to be signed by the end of the year. To what extent is this realistic? I will answer in the following way: I and the government will make every effort to make it ( like this),” he indicated, according to the Armenpress news agency.

Pashinián has also confirmed his attendance at a tripartite meeting in the city of Sochi, Russia, on October 31, which may be attended by the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

“There are many accumulated issues that need to be discussed, starting with the issue of stability and security in Nagorno-Karabakh. This year, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces invaded the protection zone of Russian peacekeepers, and we do not hide that the lack response from the peacekeepers is incomprehensible,” said the Armenian Prime Minister.

In this regard, he stressed that, despite the agreements reached in the trilateral working group, statements are being made from Moscow at various levels about the need to open a transport corridor through Armenia, while the Russian side has not condemned the attack on September 13.

Among other requests, Azerbaijan has requested, as part of the latest draft of the text of the peace treaty, the establishment of a corridor through the territory of Armenia known as the Zangezur Corridor, as well as the opening of an investigation to determine the fate of the Azeri soldiers disappeared in the context of the conflict.

On Russia’s role in the negotiation process, US State Department spokesman Ned Price explained on Tuesday that it is up to both parties to assess whether Putin “is useful to them in the search for that lasting peace.”

“Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008 and its ongoing brutal invasion of Ukraine suggest that Moscow has little respect for its neighbor’s sovereignty and is hardly a reliable long-term partner,” Price said, responding to comments from the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zajarova.

The Russian side assured at the beginning of the week that the West is trying to replicate “its confrontation schemes” in Ukraine to the Caucasus area, describing this approach as “insolent”, since, according to Moscow, what Washington and Brussels are looking for is the expulsion of of Russia from Transcaucasia.

“There is nothing self-promotional about trying to end years of conflict and years of flare-ups that have led to violence and ultimately deaths, both by Armenians and Azerbaijani citizens. Our only goal here is to help these countries work together to achieve comprehensive and lasting peace and ultimately save lives,” Price concluded.

The governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to a ceasefire in September after the latest clashes on the border, which left more than 200 dead. The fighting is the most serious since 2020, when they clashed over control of Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory with a majority Armenian population that has been a focus of conflict since it decided to separate in 1988 from the Azerbaijan region integrated into the Soviet Union.