BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 1. At the international conference under the motto "South Caucasus: Development and Cooperation" held at ADA University, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev absolutely clearly defined the meaning of signing a peace agreement with Armenia, it will bring stability and long-awaited peace to the entire region, a political expert and editor-in-chief of Russia’s National Defense magazine Igor Korotchenko told Trend.
"The main thing here is the position that Armenia should take. We see rather contradictory signals that are coming today from the Armenian leadership, from Nikol Pashinyan's inner circle. On the one hand, commitment and readiness to sign a peace agreement are declared, but on the other hand, statements are simultaneously being made that can be interpreted as Yerevan's unwillingness to recognize Karabakh as an integral part of Azerbaijan. That is, the thesis about the security of Armenians is again pedaled, it is again said that Azerbaijan should give some explanations. But what explanations can be given here, when Pashinyan's signature is under the tripartite statement, under the subsequent Moscow and Sochi agreements, under the agreements in Brussels," he said.
According to him either Armenia fully recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and renounces territorial claims forever, fixing it legally, including in the Armenian constitution, in a peace agreement, or again the normalization of the situation is postponed indefinitely.
"All the same, I would like to hope that at least everything we hear today from Armenia is exclusively the echoes of the internal political struggle, where the opposition is trying to attack Pashinyan, and he is fighting back. Nevertheless, the peace agreement will be signed on all the proposals that were put forward by Azerbaijan in due time, including the recognition of territorial integrity in full," he noted.
Speaking about the upcoming meeting in Brussels between representatives of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Korotchenko expressed hope that Baku and Yerevan would be able to reach a final consensus on a peace agreement.
"We expect a lot from this meeting, it is key. Russia welcomes the process of the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace settlement. The President of Russia and the Russian Foreign Ministry have always said that the Russian side welcomes such contacts, agreements," he added.