Azerbaijan unwilling to see peace talks imitation with Armenia - spokesperson [VIDEO]

By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Leyla Abdullayeva has said that Baku is unwilling to see another imitation of peace talks with Armenia that had been going on for about 30 years prior to the second Karabakh war (2020), Azernews reports.

She made the remarks during an interview with Musulmans de France online magazine.

Abdullayeva stated that following the 44-day war in November 2020, Azerbaijan regained control of its regions, which had been occupied for over 30 years.

Despite the extent of damage perpetrated by Armenia on these territories, Azerbaijan was the side that offered a hand of friendship to Armenia, she stressed.

“Because Azerbaijan has always kept saying that the only thing that hampers peace between Azerbaijan and Armenian is the fact of occupation. As the fact of occupation has been eliminated we said that now we are ready to move and normalize the relations with Armenia. And that's why President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev was the first one to come up with an idea of peace to sign a comprehensive peace agreement with Armenia,” she underlined.

According to Abdullayeva, the political will of both sides is very important for establishing sustainable peace in the region.

“Azerbaijan has demonstrated that it is the country that has a political will, by extending a hand of friendship to Armenia, plus presenting and coming up with an initiative of a peace agreement. Azerbaijan also came up with founding principles upon which this peace agreement should be built. We show that we are serious about the normalization of relations,” she said.

She, however, clarified that Azerbaijan does not want to repeat the imitation of peace talks that had been carried out by Armenia for almost 30 years.

“The one thing that we need to share: We don't want to see again the imitation of the negotiations, because we have seen it throughout the 30 years. If there was a concrete will of negotiations from the Armenian side over the past 30 years, probably there wouldn't be a second Karabakh war. Now we would like to see not the imitation but the real, tangible, concrete results. Because if we want peace to settle in the region, Armenia needs to completely implement the commitments,” Abdullayeva added.