Official denies 'Zangezur Corridor', Constitution claims in peace deal

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian Parliament Vice Speaker Ruben Rubinyan has refuted Azerbaijani claims that the two unresolved points in the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace treaty pertain to the 'Zangezur Corridor' and Armenia's Constitution.

"The mentioned points absolutely do not correspond to reality. As Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has publicly stated, the two still unresolved points concern the deployment of third forces on the border and the issue of mutual complaints in international legal structures. This has also been confirmed by official Baku," Rubinyan stated, as reported by RFE/RL.

Earlier, Azerbaijani Trend news agency reported that Azerbaijan's Milli Majlis Vice Speaker Ziyafat Asgarov claimed that out of the 17 points in the peace treaty, 15 have been agreed upon, and one of the remaining two unresolved points pertains to the opening of the 'Zangezur Corridor', while the other relates to territorial claims enshrined in Armenia's Constitution.

However, at the end of last year, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev himself stated that the parties had not agreed on the issues of refraining from international legal complaints against each other and the non-deployment of third-country forces on the border. Last summer, Azerbaijan's special envoy Elchin Amirbekov mentioned that the parties had agreed that the issue of communication routes would be resolved after the signing of the peace treaty.

The Azerbaijani parliamentary vice speaker also noted that Baku seeks to sign a peace agreement with the Republic of Armenia, not personally with the Prime Minister.

He also addressed the OSCE Minsk Group, asserting that this body aims to artificially maintain the conflict.

Earlier, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that the Minsk Group could be dissolved only after the signing of the peace treaty. However, at the beginning of this year, he proposed dissolving this body without clarifying whether it is possible to do so before the treaty's signing.

Regarding Armenia's Constitution, official Baku considers it one of the main obstacles to signing the peace treaty, claiming that the document contains territorial claims against Azerbaijan.

The day before, Armenian Justice Minister Srbuhi Galyan did not rule out the possibility of removing the reference to the Declaration of Independence from the preamble of the new Constitution, where the unification of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh is mentioned.