BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 7. A meeting of President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev with President of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron, President of the European Council Charles Michel and Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan was held in Prague on October 6, Trend reports.
Following the statement made on the meeting results, Azerbaijan and Armenia confirmed their commitment to the UN Charter and the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1991 through which both countries recognized each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty.
The sides also affirmed it would be a basis for the work of the border delimitation commissions and that the next commission meeting would take place in Brussels by the end of October 2022.
Commenting on the issue, former US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Matthew Bryza told Trend that if indeed Azerbaijan and Armenia recognized the sovereignty and territorial integrity of each other, that remark an enormous step forward and persuade the peace treaty that settles the Karabakh conflict once and for all and place the foundation for stable peace.
According to him, that’s because of the issue of the 'Karabakh legal status', which has long been the most difficult and the most fundamental component of the dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and the recognition of Karabakh as all sovereign Azerbaijani territory, which would pave the way for sustainable peace in the region.
"Pashinyan has faced enormous opposition from the previous regime and other nationalist Armenians, especially in Diaspora communities in the US and France not to recognize Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and to keep the conflict alive hoping that somehow Armenia might be able to recover those Azerbaijani lands that it previously occupied and then were recovered by Azerbaijan in the second Karabakh War. So this would mark a huge step forward," Bryza said.
He added that Armenia continued its provocations ever since the second Karabakh War and and these clashes will continue as long as there is no peace treaty and the international border between Azerbaijan and Armenia is not defined demarcated.
"The main thing is that if Azerbaijan and Armenia have mutually recognized each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty then the way is opened for a peace treaty that will end all sorts of clashes for the indefinite future," Bryza noted.
Moreover, Peter Tase, US expert, and strategic adviser on international affairs and public diplomacy to governments, universities, and corporations in Europe and the Americas told Trend that the Prague meeting between the Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders is the fulcrum of European Union (EU) security and geopolitical stability for many years to come, provided that Armenian government and Prime Minister abide by the very official statement made on October 6, 2022.
As he emphasized, the event is instrumental in strengthening economic growth in the Caucasus and is the beginning of a new chapter in the bilateral relations between Baku and Yerevan. He noted that the abrupt change of strategic posture on the part of the Armenian side has taken place thanks to the great leadership of President Ilham Aliyev.
"It is time for Armenia to collaborate with the Government of Azerbaijan and urgently share the maps that identify the exact location of land mines and determine all the fields with explosives inside the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan. It is time for Nakhchivan to be connected with the motherland through the Zangazur Corridor and let the regional economy flourish," he stated.