1 / 5

On September 14, the briefings following the NA regular sitting were held. The journalist inquired from the deputies of the NA Civil Contract Faction about the ongoing negotiations around the Peace Treaty to be signed between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and regarding that yesterday the RA Foreign Minister said that the sides do not still succeed to come to an agreement on the key issues.

The journalist inquired if this, as well as the accumulations of the Azerbaijani troops mean that the negotiations are entering into deadlock.

According to the Secretary of the Faction Artur Hovhannisyan, the sides are in rather hard process for a long time, and nobody has said that the document of the regulation of the peace relations will not be easy, as in numerous episodes the approaches of the sides are far from each other. “You are right: it is the fifth phase that we exchange with proposals. We have received the proposals of Azerbaijan, they will be studied by us, the process continues. The negotiations are in deadlock, as the situation is hard, and you mentioned correctly, there are accumulations of the Azerbaijani troops on the border,” he said.

The journalist also asked how Azerbaijan responded to the proposals of the Armenian side.

Arusyak Julhakyan noted that there is still no information on recent proposals. “There are paragraphs on which we cannot still reach, nut we continue negotiating, as we have said that one of the goals of Armenia is to reach peace and stability in the region. Despite the fact that complications arise that the other side of the negotiations, Azerbaijan, is not always constructive, very often it is deconstructive: we should not deviate from our goals, and we should continue the work in reaching peace and stability, and in many cases the work should be done with our international colleagues,” he underlined.

A question was raised on the opening of the Lachin Corridor. According to Arusyak Julhakyan, Armenia continues insisting that the Lachin Corridor should be unblocked. “The Republic of Armenia is a signing party of November 9 Statement, and we are owner of our signature. Therefore, Armenia continues insisting on free movement through the Lachin Corridor in two directions. In that respect, we work with all our international colleagues. We’ll carry on using political and legal toolkits. You know that we already have several interim decisions from the international two judicial instances, and we’ll carry on the work in that direction,” the MP noted.

With regards to the issues on the opening of Aghdam Road, quoting the November 9 Trilateral Statement, noted that the debates and decisions on it are not related to Armenia, thus you should direct that question to the authorities of Nagorno Karabakh. It is clearly written in the document that the Lachin Corridor should be under the control of the Russian peacekeeping troops.

Touching upon the issue on the disagreements around the Treaty, Artur Hovhannisyan mentioned that the main, most important paragraphs refer to mutually recognizing each other’s territorial integrity, the execution of the rights and security of Nagorno Karabakh people, the preservation of sovereignty of the Republic of Armenia. “Regarding this there are gaps, details on which there is no need for publicly speak at this moment,” he said. Artur Hovhannisyan mentioned that in the Peace Treaty there should be distinct mechanisms and guarantees, which would ensure the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Republic of Armenia. “You know that mutually agreement was reached on recognizing territorial integrity between the Prime Minister of Armenia and the Head of Azerbaijan, but until this moment that agreement was not realized,” he clarified.