Azerbaijan lacks the “political will” to finalize a peace agreement with Armenia and may be considering further military actions, said Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan on Wednesday, one week after holding another round of discussions with his Azerbaijani counterpart.
Mirzoyan expressed frustration with Baku’s repeated refusals to accept Armenia’s proposal for an interim peace treaty, which aims to resolve the majority of disputes while leaving a few remaining issues to be settled later.
“For various reasons and calculations, they introduce new preconditions every time, and it’s clear that they simply don’t want to sign the agreement. We don’t see any political will from Azerbaijan’s side,” Mirzoyan stated at an international security conference in Poland.
He also voiced concerns over Azerbaijan’s intentions: “There are serious worries that Azerbaijan is planning further military actions against Armenia. One example is their narrative of ‘Western Azerbaijan,’ which essentially refers to almost the entire territory of Armenia. They assure us that this is not a territorial claim, but the reality suggests otherwise.”
Back in June, the Armenian Foreign Ministry warned that Azerbaijan might launch another “aggression” against Armenia, potentially after hosting the COP29 global summit in November. Earlier this year, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan warned that Azerbaijan’s military could strike if Armenia refused to concede certain disputed border areas.
In August, Pashinyan proposed that the two countries sign a document containing most of the agreed-upon points of a draft peace treaty. However, he refrained from disclosing the specific terms during a session of the Armenian parliament on Wednesday.
Despite Azerbaijan’s repeated rejections, Pashinyan has continued to push for the peace deal. Baku has also insisted that Armenia must amend its constitution before signing any agreement.
Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov met again in New York on September 26 for further discussions, facilitated by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Both sides reported similar outcomes, stating that they had agreed to intensify efforts to finalize the peace accord. However, an Armenian lawmaker noted on Monday that there was no significant progress toward the interim agreement Armenia had hoped for.
