Azerbaijan and Armenia are not ready to sign a reconciliation agreement under any conditions, there are still some difficult issues that need to be resolved. Denis Gonchar, director of the fourth department of the CIS countries of the Russian Foreign Ministry, said this in an interview with TASS.
“The signals coming from Baku and Yerevan about the commitment to achieve peace as soon as possible do not mean that the parties are ready to agree to any conditions. We still need to find solutions to a number of difficult topics,” he said, answering the question about what problems prevent the establishment of peace between the two countries.
The diplomat noted that the most important of them is the issue of ensuring the safety of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh within the framework of the legal framework of Azerbaijan and the maintenance of universally recognized rights. “The relevant logic was defined by the parties after the mutual confirmation of the effectiveness of the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration. An international support mechanism is also required for the implementation of the agreement, which will not question the sovereignty and political independence of Armenia and Azerbaijan," added Gonchar.
He emphasized that Russia is actively helping the parties in the preparation of the peace treaty. "The preparation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty is one of the elements of the tripartite agreements between Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan," the diplomat said.
