Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to sign a peace agreement by the end of the year. Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan said in an interview with Armenian State TV, according to news.am.
Regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh problem, the main agenda was how Armenia can create an international mechanism for Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan to discuss the security and rights of Karabakh Armenians, Grigoryan said.
Grigoryan said they also discussed the terms of the peace agreement, the timetable for which is set by the end of the year, as well as the issue of delimitation.
“We should have a peace agreement by the end of the year, and there was also an agreement that delimitation would happen by the end of the year, meaning the peace agreement and delimitation are interrelated. Armenia is concerned that after the peace agreement is signed, Azerbaijan may use the so-called non-demilitarized border as a pretext to attack Armenia, so this issue was discussed.”
Grigorian said the withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from the sovereign territory of Armenia was also on the agenda.
“The lifting of the blockade in Armenia and the region, as well as in Azerbaijan, will be based on the principle of reciprocity. You know that Armenia’s position remains that we will not discuss any issue that has a corridor logic, and we continue to insist that the lifting of the blockade be based on the principles of sovereignty and reciprocity,” he said.
CSTO to send observers to the border
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced that the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) was ready to send observers to the Armenia–Azerbaijan border, just as the EU approved their own observer mission that was agreed earlier.
Speaking with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan on Wednesday, Lavrov said that the observers could be deployed to the Armenian side of the border with the agreement of the six heads of state of the Russian-led security alliance, according to Russian state news agency TASS.
He said this had been recommended by a CSTO fact-finding mission sent to Armenia after the country appealed under the treaty’s mutual defence clause during attacks by Azerbaijan on 13–14 September.
Source:gerceknews
