Baku readying aggression against Armenia: Armenian FM

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
19 Mar 00:04
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This comes after Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Aykhan Hajizada said on Wednesday that Yerevan "is not interested" in peace and stability in the region.

A Russian peacekeeper guards the Lachin corridor, the Armenian-majority breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region's only land link with Armenia, on December 27, 2022, as demonstrators stage a protest. (Tofik Babayev/AFP/Getty Images)

Armenia's Foreign Ministry on Saturday accused Baku of preparing an escalation against Armenia via the use of an "aggressive rhetoric" aimed at undermining existing agreements between both countries.

This comes after Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Aykhan Hajizada said on Wednesday that Yerevan "is not interested" in peace and stability in the region as it rejected a peace proposal that would include provisions ruling out Armenia's territorial claims in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

"The assessment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia is clear: with its aggressive discourse and actions Azerbaijan makes preparations for subjecting the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh to genocide and for a new aggression against Armenia," the Armenian ministry said in a statement, noting that Baku was "doing everything" to impede the peace process between the two countries.

"'There will be no peace treaty'; this is a quote from the speech of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, made on March 18, 2023," the ministry noted.

"Azerbaijan not only keeps under occupation the sovereign territories of Armenia which it illegally occupied but also introduced the so-called "Western Azerbaijan" discourse and declares practically the entire territory of Armenia as Azeri land," the ministry added.

Over the past 30 years, Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars, with the latter working to gain control over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is largely Armenian territory.

In the 2020 conflict, which lasted for 6 weeks, over 6,500 troops died from both sides, and it ended with a Russia-mediated ceasefire. Russia sent 2,000 peacekeepers to monitor the truce, but tensions remained despite a ceasefire deal.

Armenia delivered a peace proposal to Azerbaijan on February 16 that aims to end the decades-long dispute between the neighboring nations and normalize bilateral relations.

"Armenia completed the next stage of work on a peace treaty and the establishment of relations with Azerbaijan yesterday, and our proposals were submitted to the Azerbaijani side," said the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, adding that the document was also handed over to co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group: Russian ambassador Igor Khovaev; Brice Roquefeuil of France, and Andrew Schofer of the US.

Pashinyan also confirmed that negotiations with Azerbaijan are witnessing progress.