Baku Accuses Yerevan Of Obstructing Peace Agreement Process

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry on Thursday accused Yerevan of obstructing a peace agreement process and expressed concern over Armenia's actions saying it failed to respond to Baku's proposal on a peace treaty for eight months

BAKU (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th January, 2023) The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry on Thursday accused Yerevan of obstructing a peace agreement process and expressed concern over Armenia's actions saying it failed to respond to Baku's proposal on a peace treaty for eight months.

"We express concern over Armenia obstructing the peace agreement under various pretexts by exaggerating certain elements and creating confusion about the essence of the negotiation process," the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Baku added that Armenia had not allegedly responded to Azerbaijan's proposal to sign a peace agreement within eight months and had suggested that a demilitarized zone be established in "an unspecified border region, which is usually determined by a lengthy process of delimitation."

The tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan flared up in late 2022. Since December 12, 2022, the Lachin corridor, the only road that links Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh enclave but runs through the Azerbaijani district, has been blocked by a group of Azerbaijanis described by Baku as environmental activists.

According to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the corridor's blockade violates the ceasefire declaration brokered by Russia between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2020. The document delegated control of the Lachin corridor to Russian peacekeepers deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh. In late December, Pashinyan alleged that the peacekeepers did not fulfill their obligations regarding control over the corridor.

On January 18, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the issue of the Lachin corridor in Nagorno-Karabakh could be resolved in the near future. The top diplomat noted that Moscow proposed to Baku and Yerevan a mechanism according to which Russian peacekeepers would have the authority under the trilateral agreement to control movement through the Lachin corridor and, among other things, to check vehicles for prohibited non-humanitarian and non-civilian goods in them.