Azerbaijan, Armenia hold sixth session on delimitation and security of borders

The sixth session of the commissions on the delimitation and security of the borders of Armenia and Azerbaijan will be held on January 31, Azernews reports.

The press service of Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan's office shared information about it, adding that the meeting will be held on the border in the Ijevan and Gazakh regions.

The last session of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Commissions was held on November 30 under the joint chairmanship of Deputy Prime Ministers Mher Grigoryan and Shahin Mustafayev.

Recall that during an interview with local media journalists, the President of Azerbaijan touched upon the issue of the eight occupied villages by Armenia and their return to Azerbaijan, where he also said that the next meeting of the commissions on the delimitation of the borders of the Gazakh-Tovuz region is scheduled for January 2024.

"This issue was also discussed during my contacts with the Armenian Prime Minister, including during the conversation "on the feet" in St. Petersburg. It is also on the agenda of the Delimitation Commission. I must also say that the next meeting of the Delimitation Commission is scheduled for this month, and there will be one topic: the issue of delimitation of this region, the Gazakh-Tovuz region," said Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev during the interview.

The peace treaty process between Armenia and Azerbaijan depends on the will and desire of these sides to achieve it, excluding the use of violence and manipulation against each other. However, there are some "forces" in Armenia that stick to decisions based on fear and personal gain and push others towards revanchist ideas.

In addition, it should be noted that Azerbaijan has expressed preference for resolving the conflict within the region - either bilaterally or through the mediation of countries like Georgia, Turkiye, and Russia.

However, despite all these efforts, the Armenian side presented certain baseless arguments and claims every time, preventing possible results in the negotiations. For example, in his speech to the OSCE, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan reiterated Armenia's assertion that, after Azerbaijan's "ethnic cleansing" of Garabagh, "Baku is eying an attack on Armenia".

For his part, Azerbaijan's Jeyhun Bayramov said that all the Garabagh Armenians left of their own volition and were free to stay in their homes. He accused Yerevan of needlessly dragging out the peace process and railed against "biased and one-sided actions by certain third parties [that] seriously affect the process."

The minister added that despite all the adverse effects, Azerbaijan is committed to the negotiations and successful results.

"We publicly offered Armenia to meet on the mutual state border or in an impartial and neutral third country," the minister said.