Azerbaijan's Aliyev: Armenia Could Suffer Again Without Peace Agreement

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev addressed the prospects of a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan in an interview with the Spanish publication El Pais on December 14. He stated, "This issue should perhaps first be directed at Armenia, because I have repeatedly declared publicly that Azerbaijan is ready to start peace negotiations with Armenia and work towards signing a peace agreement. So far, according to Aliyev, there has been no response from the Armenian leadership.

For the past six months, I have constantly made such statements. This shows that they, meaning the Armenians, do not want peace, because in the case of signing a peace agreement, one of the fundamental principles of that agreement would be the mutual recognition of territorial integrity, and Armenia does not want to recognize Azerbaijan's territorial integrity.

The whole world recognizes Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and believes that Nagorno-Karabakh is an inseparable part of Azerbaijan. Armenia is not stating whether it recognizes Azerbaijan's territorial integrity or not. Before the second Karabakh war, they were saying, their Prime Minister said, that 'Karabakh is Armenia and that’s it.' This statement essentially disrupted the negotiation process and became one of the reasons why last year they, the Armenians, faced such a bitter tragedy as defeat.

We are clearly stating that we want to immediately start negotiations with Armenia on a comprehensive peace agreement. It is clear that this will not be a ceasefire agreement but a full peace agreement. I hope that our European partners will be able to convince Armenia that its current position is hopeless. I believe that Armenia could suffer again in the future without a peace agreement with Azerbaijan,” concluded Azerbaijan's president.