Speaker: Armenia should honor commitments under ceasefire deal

By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

Parliament Speaker Sahiba Gafarova has said that Azerbaijan expects Armenia to honor its commitments under the trilateral statement signed by Baku, Moscow, and Yerevan in 2020, Azertag has reported.

Gafarova made the remarks on March 29 at the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Interparliamentary Assembly (PA) Council meeting in Almaty, Kazakhstan, commemorating the CIS PA's 30th anniversary.

She said that Armenia should take a constructive approach and work to normalize relations on the basis of mutual recognition of sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of internationally recognized borders, as well as the restoration of all regional economic and transportation ties.

"This is the only way to achieve true peace and stability in the region," she underlined.

The speaker also informed the participants about the new realities that have emerged in the South Caucasus following the liberation of Azerbaijani territories from Armenian occupation.

She noted that new prospects for peace and cooperation in the region have emerged in the post-conflict period. As a supporter of peace, Azerbaijan is committed to implementing the trilateral statement signed by the leaders of Azerbaijan, Russia, and Armenia on November 10, 2020.

“At the same time, the complete withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces and illegal Armenian armed formations from the territory of Azerbaijan, envisioned by the 4th paragraph of the trilateral statement, hasn’t yet been carried out, and not Azerbaijan, but Armenia violates the provisions of the statement,” Gafarova said.

She reminded her Armenian counterpart Alen Simonyan, who was also present at the meeting, that "we are still waiting for an answer from Armenia on the fate of about 4,000 Azerbaijanis who went missing during the First Karabakh War".

The speaker underlined that Azerbaijan returned all of its prisoners of war to Armenia as part of the trilateral agreement. According to the Geneva Convention, Armenian personnel imprisoned on Azerbaijani soil after the signing of the November 10 declaration are not considered prisoners of war, she added.

Gafarova stated that Simonyan's allegations concerning Azerbaijan's ceasefire violations are false.

She emphasized that the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry had previously said that the positions and locations of the Azerbaijani army in Karabakh, which is Azerbaijan's sovereign territory, are being defined.

Moreover, on the morning of March 26, members of illegal Armenian armed groups attempted to commit sabotage against Azerbaijani army forces, but the effort was quickly foiled, the speaker stressed.

She added that the administrative-territorial unit known as "Nagorno-Karabakh" does not exist in Azerbaijan.

She reminded Armenia that Azerbaijan had provided a document including five sections on the restoration of relations and was awaiting a response.

Gafarova also read out an address by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to the event's participants.

Commenting on the issues at hand, she congratulated the participants on the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly and wished the organization continued success.

The speaker emphasized that the InterParliamentary Assembly is a favorable platform for exchanging experience in political, legal, economic, humanitarian and other fields.

Despite the pandemic, the Azerbaijani parliament continued its activities within the Interparliamentary Assembly, and members of the Azerbaijani delegation joined the organization's online and face-to-face events and were represented in separate commissions, she added.