Baku awaiting Yerevan's response to its peace treaty proposals, official says

At this crucial stage of the peace process, when the parties are not far from concluding a peace agreement, Yerevan's sincere attitude towards achieving concrete results is necessary. This was told by Ambassador Elchin Amirbayov, representative of the Azerbaijani President for special assignments, in an interview with The Guardian.

According to Azernews, Elchin Amirbayov noted that, having handed over the last version of the text of the peace agreement to the Armenian side last week, Baku now expects Yerevan to respond to its proposals.

The Ambassador noted that Armenia should fully realise the benefits of peace with Azerbaijan and finally give up all harmful illusions and manipulations aimed at disrupting the peace process and returning to military confrontation with Azerbaijan.

Having outlined five main principles that formed the basis of the draft peace agreement prepared by Baku, the representative of the President noted at the same time that the issue of determining the border could be resolved at a later stage, given its complicated and labor-intensive nature.

When asked about the mechanism of dispute settlement between the parties after the signing of the peace agreement, Elchin Amirbayov stressed that Azerbaijan prefers the idea of establishing a bilateral Armenian-Azerbaijani commission without any unnecessary interference from outside.

"As for the provision of transport communication between the main part of Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan, Baku considers this issue not only in the context of creating an alternative route linking China with Europe through the Middle Corridor but also as an important element of ensuring its national security.

In this sense, Amirbayov emphasised that, as events "on the ground" show, after three years of vainly waiting for a clear answer from Armenia, Baku does not intend to waste any more time. If Armenia is unable to understand its benefit in the creation of the Zangazur corridor, if it continues to spread an absurd narrative of impending aggression against it by Azerbaijan and intends to continue to remain in a regional deadlock, Azerbaijan moves to concrete actions and starts implementing the so-called "Plan B," preferring the creation of the aforementioned transport link through the territory of neighbouring Iran.