Armenia stands ready to establish peace with Azerbaijan even despite difficulties and the eviction of ethnic Armenians from Karabakh, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said.
“Indeed, there is an opportunity for peace with Azerbaijan despite the multitude of difficulties and obstacles, even despite the forced eviction of the Armenian population from Nagorno-Karabakh. Indeed, we see this opportunity. We, for our part, are doing everything possible to enable the peace process to reach its logical conclusion,” Mirzoyan said at a joint press conference with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in Yerevan on Wednesday.
Armenia has decided to conscientiously and constructively engage in negotiations, the ultimate goal of which is to normalize relations and establish peace with Azerbaijan, he said.
“We are committed to the peace process and to securing a lasting peace in the region. We are working on a draft peace treaty. We received proposals from Azerbaijan a few days ago. We will study and react to them in an appropriate manner and will present our proposals,” Mirzoyan said.
“We need Azerbaijan’s constructive approach in parallel with our constructive approach,” he said.
“Yes, this opportunity [to establish peace] does exist. It depends not only on Armenia’s constructive approach, but also on Azerbaijan’s. We hope that the Azerbaijani side will demonstrate this constructive attitude,” Mirzoyan said.
The Iranian foreign minister, in turn, reaffirmed the importance of establishing peace in the South Caucasus in the 3+3 format and without external forces’ participation.
“We have been helping bring peace to the South Caucasus. We’d like peace to be ensured without external forces’ intervention. We believe that it will be possible to ensure peace and security in the South Caucasus thanks to the regional guarantors,” Amirabdollahian said at the press conference.
Hopefully, peace may be achieved in the South Caucasus within the next few months, he said.
“We are full of hope that peace will be established between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the 3+3 format with the participation of Iran, Russia and Turkey, without external interference,” he said.
