Mammad Talibov: “In Azerbaijan we are open for the signing of a definitive peace agreement”

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan has reignited in recent days and has caused fatalities. Mammad Talibov, ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Peru, spoke with La República and explained the reasons that, in his opinion, prevent a true peace agreement from being reached between the two countries.

In 2020, a ceasefire was established through Russia. Today, the conflict is intensifying due to its territorial disputes.

1.- Why was the ceasefire agreement reached in 2020 mediated by Russia violated a few days ago? What was the reason?

We have to say that it is a provocation from Armenia. This time on the undefined border, between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and not in the former conflict zone of the Azerbaijani region of Karabakh.

It is not the only act of provocation by Armenia. In fact, it was an act of the chains that lasted for the last two months and that we always observed with the shelling of the posts of the Azerbaijani Army.

In the night, between September 12 and 13 of the current year, the Armenian Armed Forces resorted to a large-scale provocation in the direction of the border. Azerbaijani positions and strongholds were shelled.

Taking into account that this happened after a meeting to achieve normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, with the mediation of the President of the European Council, Mr. Charles Michel, we believe that Armenia’s goal was to deviate from fulfilling these agreements and all that had been achieved. That’s why he started these military provocations.

2.- Azerbaijan and Armenia blame each other for the attack that caused numerous victims. What does the Government of Azerbaijan say about it?

Azerbaijan suffered from military occupation by Armenia for the last 30 years. Despite the resolutions of the Security Council, Armenia occupied one fifth of Azerbaijan, thereby displacing one million Azerbaijanis from those territories. During the 44-day Homeland War in 2020, we succeeded in liberating these territories and enforced UN resolutions requiring Armenia to leave.

Now, Azerbaijan, as always, wants peace, stability and development in the region. Five principles have been provided for the normalization of relations with Armenia and a priority would be a mutual recognition of each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, but Armenia does not give up its territorial claims, nor its policy of aggression against Azerbaijan and, therefore, we have not been able to reach a final agreement yet.

The territories liberated after the Armenian occupation we find totally looted, destroyed and now the objective of the Government of Azerbaijan is to guarantee the return of the displaced after 30 years of being away from their homes.

One of the challenges is reconstruction, and for this reason, for almost two years after the war and the recovery of our internationally recognized territories, the country carried out various projects such as large-scale construction. With all this and with this year’s investments, which were close to 3,000 million dollars, Azerbaijan is not interested in military escalation, but Armenia is, because there are still revanchist forces that want to continue with the policy of aggression and annexation of Azerbaijani territories.

The Government of Armenia does not want to follow the fulfillment of the agreements and they start with these military provocations.

3.- What did Azerbaijan do, after the 44th day of the war in 2020, to normalize relations with Armenia and conclude a peace agreement, and which countries act as mediators in this process?

There are different formats now. For example, we reached several agreements, several trilateral declarations mediated by Russia in November 2020 after the military acts. Then, in January and November 2021, with the mediation of Russia as well.

In addition, there is a format of meetings between the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia with the mediation of the European Union (EU). All two formats go in parallel and are very important. We made some achievements, and one of the most important issues would be the opening of communications and the opening of the corridor to ensure Azerbaijan’s access to its exclave region of Nakhchivan.

It must be remembered that Armenia has not complied with the withdrawal of illegal separatist forces from the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. In those territories there is still a large presence of the Armenian Army.

In Azerbaijan we are open, with the aim of normalizing relations, so that in a short time a final peace agreement is signed but we see that with this bellicose rhetoric on the part of Armenia, with the latest events and also with the revanchist forces, they do not allow us to advance in this process of negotiations.

4.- Ambassador, in his last interview with this medium, said that he hopes that the politicians who arrive in Armenia will not be “revanchists”. Why is it so difficult to conclude a peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia?

After the declaration of our independence in 1991, the policy of Armenia was a policy of aggression against Azerbaijan, with the demands for territorial claims and of course it has created some groups, we call them revenge groups, after its defeat in 2020.

That group is aggressive and its policy has always been the annexation of the territories and now they cannot admit that their policy of all these years has failed. For 26 years, Azerbaijan has been waiting and trying to reach a diplomatic agreement with them to leave the occupied territories, based on UN resolutions, but they never fulfilled it.

Through military and diplomatic means we liberated our territory and now we have to sign the final peace agreement. They have to abandon their ideology, policy of aggression and annexation of the territories, but they do not want to admit it.

After gaining independence, Azerbaijan managed to be an economic leader in the region despite the fact that it had displaced people from the occupied territories. We managed to develop a lot in the region with economic projects in a short time. Now we also want to normalize relations with Armenia. We want to open communications and new economic possibilities, the reconstruction of our regions that suffered greatly from the Armenian aggression, and the return of displaced Azerbaijanis to their homes. We want to live in peace with our neighbors, without confronting territorial claims, with mutual recognition of sovereignty.

We have to carry out the negotiation process for the delimitation and demarcation of the borders. To achieve this goal we have a commission in the form of first deputy ministers, but the big problem is that Armenia, always under various pretexts, avoids making any progress. Armenia has to understand that they have already failed and think about how we can move forward and how we can normalize our relations for the progress of our peoples. We no longer want to lose any more human lives.

The only thing that Azerbaijan asks of Armenia is to recognize the integrity of our territory, give up its territorial claims and live within internationally recognized borders, including by Peru. The whole world recognizes the borders that Armenia does not want to recognize.

5. What steps should both countries take to achieve peace? What has Azerbaijan done so far?

After the mediation meeting of Charles Michel, President of the European Council, Azerbaijan unilaterally released five Armenian detainees and I can say that they were not prisoners of war. In fact, they were terrorists because they infiltrated our territory and this shows good will of Azerbaijan.

Another important moment is that Azerbaijan proposed to Armenia, with the aim of normalizing relations between our countries, five basic principles to sign the peace agreement.

A couple of weeks ago we found out in the liberated territory that Armenians planted the mines with a production date of 2021. So, they infiltrated this environment and again they keep planting more mines. That does not help us to achieve the big step.

We hope that little by little we will move towards a peace agreement because the Armenians finally understand that with war we cannot achieve anything, so they have to stop their aggression and change the whole policy with their hopes of annexing our territory. In no way are we going to leave our territories, we will always defend it.

Armenia has to understand that everything related to the territories of Azerbaijan is internal affairs and has nothing to do with Armenia.

Source-larepublica.pe