Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, during a press conference yesterday following his meeting in Baku with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, reiterated his demand that the OSCE Minsk Group be dissolved and that a preamble to Armenia’s Constitution be removed before Baku signs any peace deal with Yerevan.

Baku has long claimed that the 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.

“Once these two conditions are met, there will be no obstacle to signing the peace treaty. As they say, the ball is in Armenia's court. If Armenia is genuinely interested in signing the peace treaty, it must accept these two legitimate conditions of Azerbaijan,” the Azertac state news agency quotes Aliyev as saying.

The German president, now in Azerbaijan following his recent visit to Armenia, again called on Baku and Yerevan to seize the historical opportunity and sign the draft peace deal.

“The implementation of a reliable reconciliation will require a lot of time from both countries and peoples. Therefore, it is impossible to ignore the fact that this reconciliation will take a long time. But the first step is the preparation, signing, ratification, entry into force and implementation of the agreement. Then other problems can be solved. I do hope this will happen soon,” Frank-Walter Steinmeier said at the press conference.

Aliyev claimed that Baku initiated the peace process with Armenia. He did acknowledge that the foreign ministries of both countries “worked hard on this document, and I do believe that both sides demonstrated good will.” 

Aliyev argued that those blaming his government for dragging its feet on signing the peace agreement were incorrect.

“It was Azerbaijan that developed the main principles, and we have been involved in these negotiations in good faith. If we were not interested in signing the agreement, we could have put forward unrealistic conditions so that Armenia would not accept it,” Aliyev said.

Photo: Azertag.az