Aliyev complains about Armenia’s constitution to Blinken

PanARMENIAN.Net - Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev reportedly reiterated his preconditions for a peace deal with Armenia in a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday, September 16, RFE/RL’s Armenian service reports.

It took place four days after Blinken spoke with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian by phone. The U.S. State Department released similar readouts of the two conversations.

“Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev today and reaffirmed the importance of a durable and dignified peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia,” said Matthew Miller, the department spokesman.

Blinken also “welcomed recent progress between the parties, including agreement on a border delimitation regulation,” added Miller. He gave no other details of their discussion of the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process.

According to Azerbaijani news agencies, Aliyev told Blinken that there is already peace in the region thanks to “new realities” created by Azerbaijan. In that context, he again demanded that Armenia change its constitution and agree to disband the OSCE Minsk Group that had been set up in the early 1990s to deal with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Aliyev and other senior Azerbaijani officials have for months made the signing of a peace treaty with Armenia conditional on the constitutional change sought by Baku. Aliyev reportedly insisted on this precondition in a previous call with Blinken reported in June.

The top U.S. diplomat said at the time that the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict should be settled “without delay.” The foreign ministers of the two South Caucasus states achieved no breakthrough during talks hosted by Blinken in Washington in July.

Pashinian talked to Blinken on Thursday after twice repeating last week his proposal to sign an interim peace deal with Azerbaijan that would leave out the few remaining sticking points. Baku continued to reject it.