BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 16. The soonest resolution of the opening of Zangazur corridor is one of the fundamental elements of future peace in the region, President Ilham Aliyev said addressing the 9th Global Baku Forum under the motto "Challenges to the Global World Order”, Trend reports.
"With respect to process of normalization of relations with Armenia, we suggested, it was our proposal to start working on peace agreement. Armenia did not respond. Then we made another step, we put forward five basic principles of international law, including mutual respect to and recognition of territorial integrity of both countries and mutual refrain from any territorial claims now and in the future, and other principles which make the bulk of our proposal. We were glad to see that the Armenian government accepted this five principles. So this is positive dynamics but now we need to move to practical implementation. Because we know from the history of times of occupation when we were negotiating that sometimes words even on high-level articulated by Armenian officials do not mean a lot. Because we need steps. Azerbaijan already on its side established Azerbaijani commission on peace agreement and we expect the same to be done by Armenia. As soon as it is done, or if it is done, then negotiations will start. We also put forward a proposal to start the process of delimitation of our border. Because biggest part of our border was also under occupation and never a delimitation took place. Therefore, this process also have started and the first joint meeting of the border commissions of Azerbaijan and Armenia took place last month on the border. That was also symbolic that both sides met on the border and that was also an important message that there will be progress. Of course, we understand that it’s a long way but it started," the head of state said.
"At the same time, we expect that Armenia will comply with the trilateral Declaration signed on 10 November 2020 with respect to the opening of communications for Azerbaijan to have connection with its Autonomous Republic of Nakhchivan. Unfortunately, it’s more than one and a half year since Armenia signed a capitulation act, but so far there is no access. And this is unacceptable. First, this is a violation by Armenia of the provisions of trilateral Declaration, and it also creates a kind of imbalance in the region, because based on the same declaration, Azerbaijan undertook obligation to provide unimpeded access from Armenia to Karabakh region of Azerbaijan where Armenian population lives. So for one year and a half Armenians are using Lachin road to have this unimpeded connection, but Azerbaijanis cannot use the road through Armenia-Zangazur corridor to connect us with Nakhchivan,' Azerbaijani president said.
"This is not fair and this is not just. We will never agree with that. Therefore I think that the deliberate delays from Armenian side of giving us this access is counterproductive. It reminds me of the times of negotiations when Armenia was delaying and delaying and just winning time. What was the result of that? The result was total defeat on the battlefield and on political arena. The result was that Armenian ideological basis was totally dismantled. Almost 30 years of occupation did not make Armenian people happier. On the contrary they have been known by the world community as occupants and aggressors. Now, after the war ended everybody can see what ruins they left during the times of occupation. Therefore the soonest resolution of the opening of Zangazur corridor is one of the fundamental elements of future peace in the region. If we are not given this access then it will be difficult to talk about peace and all efforts of Azerbaijan aimed at normal coexistence and normal neighborhood with Armenia will fail. This is an important issue again. Azerbaijan has a right to demand it," the head of state said.
