Azerbaijan’s foreign minister rejected an Armenian request to provide special security guarantees for some 120,000 ethnic Armenians living in the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave ahead of a new round of peace talks, saying they were sufficiently protected.
Nagorno-Karabakh, internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, has been a source of conflict between the two Caucasian neighbors since the years leading up to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and between ethnic Armenian and Azerbaijani Turkmen for more than a century.
After heavy fighting and a Russian-brokered ceasefire, Azerbaijan in 2020 captured areas controlled by ethnic Armenians in and around the mountainous enclave.
Since then, the two sides have been discussing a peace deal in which they would agree borders, resolve differences over the enclave and dissolve relations.
In what appeared to be a breakthrough, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan reportedly said last month that Armenia recognized Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan but wanted Baku to provide guarantees for its people.
In an interview with Reuters, however, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said such a guarantee was unnecessary and that the request amounted to interference in Azerbaijani affairs.
“We do not accept such preconditions or pretexts from the Republic of Armenia for a number of reasons,” he said.
“The conclusion is this: this is an internal, sovereign matter. The Constitution of Azerbaijan and a number of international conventions to which Azerbaijan is a party provide all the necessary conditions to guarantee the rights of this population.”
((Translation Editora São Paulo, +55 11 5047-3075)) REUTERS FC
Source: Terra
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