Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said today that Baku has responded to Armenia’s comments regarding its March 14 peace proposal and hopes that Yerevan will “not waste more time” to negotiate a peace treaty.

"We have been negotiating for twenty-eight years. Unfortunately, this resulted in serious military operations and, as a result, the territories of Azerbaijan were liberated. We did it by force. Be unhappy. However, if Armenia behaved constructively, we could do it by political means,” Aliyev said following a meeting with Latvian President Egils Levits according to the APA news agency.

Baku, on March 14, released its peace treaty proposal, which includes:

- Mutual recognition of respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of internationally recognized borders and political independence of each other.

- Mutual confirmation of the absence of territorial claims against each other and acceptance of legally binding obligations not to raise such a claim in future.

Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, a day later, said Baku’s five-point proposal “does not fully encompass all existing problems”. Others in the Armenian government chided Baku for releasing the proposal, regarding it a “working document”.

“It is vital for the Armenian side that the rights and freedoms of the Armenians of Artsakh are clearly guaranteed, and the status of Nagorno-Karabakh is finally clarified. For us, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not a territorial issue, but a matter of rights,” Mirzoyan said.

He said Armenia had conveyed its concerns to Baku on the matter.

Aliyev, on April 9, claimed Armenia had accepted its proposal. According to a statement released by his office, Aliyev broached the peace proposal during a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that Armenian has accepted it.

Photo: Press service of the President of Azerbaijan