Armenia will not get off with 15 points – once again about the peace treaty

The peace treaty is ready, and Armenia is ready to sign it right now... This was the reaction of official Yerevan, represented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister of Armenia, to the statement by Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov on the completion of work on the text of the peace treaty. On the sidelines of the XII Global Baku Forum, Bayramov said that the negotiation process on the text of the peace treaty with Armenia has already been completed. A few days ago, he noted, the Armenian side announced through appropriate channels that it had accepted Baku's proposals on the two remaining uncoordinated points of the document.

After this statement, the Armenian Foreign Ministry happily stated that the peace treaty was ready for signing, and Armenia had taken a low start in wanting to start consultations with Azerbaijan on the timing and place of signing the agreement." He hastened to reassure his subjects, pointing out that both points in question relate to the period after the agreement enters into force.  Earlier, speaking about the uncoordinated points of the document, Pashinyan mentioned among them the issue of the presence of the EU mission on the borders. It should be understood that Armenia stopped resisting, realizing that it still has nowhere to go. And the new geopolitical situation is not developing in favor of France and Co.

Well, at first glance, it may seem that the issue has been resolved and all that remains is to put signatures so that peace in the region can come. But everything is not as simple as Yerevan wants to think. In fact, the completion of work on the text does not automatically mean that the document is ready for signing. Because Azerbaijan still has questions for the Armenian side, the solution of which by Yerevan requires political will and foresight.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry and Prime Minister, making optimistic statements, tried to ignore the second part of the words of the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister. But he wasn't just talking about finishing the text. Continuing his response to journalists' questions, he said: "As a next step, the Azerbaijani side expects that the remaining claims to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan will be eliminated through changes in the Constitution of Armenia and other normative legal acts."

These words change everything and show that the completion of work on the text does not mean the completion of work on the peace treaty as a whole. Azerbaijan and Armenia are not equal partners, so Baku should sign peace with Yerevan without preconditions. And the preconditions set by the Azerbaijani side are, I must say, very sparing. In reality, Armenia has accumulated a lot of debts to Azerbaijan, and they will have to be repaid. Not immediately, but in stages, but you have to. And we should start with the legislative basis of Armenian separatism and extremism. And Baku cannot expect that everything will be resolved by itself in the future. Our neighbor has not earned trust and has not yet proved that he has changed.

Speaking at the opening of the Global Baku Forum, President Ilham Aliyev outlined the problem very clearly. He said that the level of trust in Armenia is close to zero, and therefore not a single word of it is trusted in Azerbaijan. These, he noted, are not the people we can trust, including today's government.

"Again, everything they say has no meaning for us. We need documents, we need papers. We need to ensure that their Constitution does not contain any territorial claims against Azerbaijan. They are still present there. We need the OSCE Minsk Group to be dissolved. This is our message to Armenia, and we declare that there is no logic in preserving the Minsk Group. It was created to resolve the Karabakh issue. This issue has been resolved today. Armenia recognizes Karabakh as a part of Azerbaijan. Why don't they join us and submit a joint statement to the OSCE on the dissolution of the organization? They don't want to. Thus, they want to keep "part of their positions" on the ground, on our territory, now, of course, virtually," the head of state said.

By making a statement, the Armenian Foreign Ministry wants to show that the ball is already definitively on Baku's side, and if peace is not signed now, all condemning eyes will have to be directed at Azerbaijan. And no one will have any more questions for Armenia, because, they say, she agreed to the conditions of the Azerbaijani side "in the name of peace." The Armenian diplomatic department must think that they have made a very clever move and driven Baku into a dead end. Meanwhile, the signing of peace between the two countries after one of them occupied and destroyed the territories of the other for thirty years, organized ethnic cleansing, destroyed its heritage, cannot be carried out on the basis of a document of only 15 points. The peace treaty outlines the obligations of the parties in accordance with internationally accepted procedures. But besides that, there are still a lot of other issues that also need to be resolved.

So Yerevan jumped to conclusions.

In his speech at the Forum, the Azerbaijani leader recalled the crimes of the Armenian barbarians on our land and stressed that we cannot and will not forget the years of occupation and the suffering of the Azerbaijani people caused by the Armenian occupation and aggression, and we will not forget the Khojaly genocide.

"We need peace in the South Caucasus, and that is why Azerbaijan initiated the peace process. Actually, Azerbaijan is even the author of the draft peace agreement, which is currently being discussed between Azerbaijan and Armenia and has been largely agreed upon. That is, most of the points of the agreement have already been agreed upon," President Ilham Aliyev stressed.

"Basically, it's been agreed" - these words of the President should sober up the "optimists" from Ararat Mirzoyan's office, who are already trying on peacemakers' awards. "Basically" means that Azerbaijan does not consider the peace process completed. There is also the issue of the Constitution, which is very difficult for Pashinyan, but he will have to solve it. There's no getting away from it. There is a question of compensation for the damage caused. If it is not included in the text of the contract, it does not mean that all debts have been paid. There remains the issue of Armenia's militarization, the issue of external influence on this country, and attempts by Yerevan's patrons to portray Armenians as victims of aggression and Azerbaijanis as occupiers. And these attempts are being quite successfully promoted by the lobby in the European parliaments. Until Yerevan stops all this, peace in the region will remain under threat.

And, again, there is a question of trust. More precisely, distrust. As President Ilham Aliyev said, "We have a good memory. We all remember how the current Armenian government behaved before the Second Karabakh War. We all remember the statements of the Armenian leader, who said that "Karabakh is Armenia," and this was said in Khankendi. We all remember how he behaved in the occupied city of Shusha. You can find it on the internet. It's a very interesting video. Today, some European bureaucrats are trying to present Armenia as a "dove of peace." But they forget about the previous actions of the current government. They forgot that our towns and villages were shelled during the Second Karabakh War. More than 100 civilians have become victims of missile strikes, including those using the Iskander-M missile, which is effectively banned for export. And we still have not received an answer to the question of how the Armenian army managed to get the Iskander-M. Once again, this missile is banned for export in Russia. And those who do not believe my words can see the Iskander-M firsthand in our Military Trophy Park, which is located 5-10 minutes away from here," Ilham Aliyev said at the opening of the Global Forum.

As you can see, there are still enough problems. Armenia has inflicted too much harm on the Azerbaijani people to get off with one 15-point paper.