Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev believes considerable progress has been made in negotiations to broker a peace deal with Armenia despite Yerevan’s refusal to remove sections of the Armenian constitution that Baku views as problematic and a main prerequisite for peace.\

“I believe we can finalize the text of the peace agreement, or at least its main principles, within a few months,” Azerbaijan’s Trend News Agency quotes Aliyev as saying during a meeting with the newly appointed Canadian ambassador to the country Kevin Hamilton.

Baku has long claimed that a preamble to Armenia’s Constitution indirectly refers to a 1989 declaration on Artsakh’s reunification with the Republic of Armenia and calls for the international recognition of the 1915 Armenian Genocide.

Opposition forces in Armenia have argued that the call made by Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan in January for a new constitution was the result of pressure from Azerbaijan.

Pashinyan has said a new constitution is needed to reflect “new geopolitical and regional realities”.

Aliyev also dismissed statements made by Armenia that it recognizes Azerbaijan’s territorial reality.

“Now, after we have defeated Armenia’s occupying forces on the battlefield and expelled them from our lands, we hear statements supporting our territorial integrity. But we have already secured it ourselves. Whether someone recognizes our territorial integrity or not is irrelevant,” Aliyev said according to Trend.

Aliyev said it’s difficult to quickly settle issues that went unresolved for twenty-eight years.

Photo: REUTERS/Annegret Hilse/File Photo