Baku hopes to hold another round of negotiations between Azerbaijani and Armenian officials on a draft peace treaty in the near future, Azerbaijani Presidential Representative for Special Assignments Elchin Amirbayov said in an interview with the Estonian public broadcasting ERR, Report informs.
He noted that the opening of communications is an integral part of the entire peace process between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
“The main track of the negotiations is the agreement on the text of the peace treaty (between Baku and Yerevan). It outlines all the main parameters of the future peace, including the restoration of communications. In addition to the main track, there are two more - the opening of communications, as well as the delimitation and subsequent demarcation of the state border between Azerbaijan and Armenia,” he said.
Speaking about the resumption of transport communications, Amirbayov reminded about the initiative of the Azerbaijani side to restore the “Zangazur Corridor” so that Azerbaijani citizens living in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic or in the main part of Azerbaijan have unhindered land communication.
“We are talking about 42 kilometers of railway track, which, unfortunately, was destroyed as a result of the conflict. We are talking not only about the construction of the missing section. By the way, on our part this work is almost completed. I mean the Horadiz-Agband section. Unfortunately, the Armenian side has not even begun work on the technical justification for this project,” he said.
The presidential representative emphasized that Baku hopes to hold in the near future another round of negotiations between officials of Azerbaijan and Armenia to discuss a draft peace treaty.
“We hope that the next round of negotiations will take place soon, and discussions on the draft peace treaty, which, by the way, was drawn up by Azerbaijan and first presented to Armenia just over a year ago, will be resumed. In the absence of physical negotiations on the text of the treaty, exchange of drafts continues between the parties, that is, each party submits its comments and amendments to the next draft of this treaty. We, and not only us, hope that after Azerbaijan has fully restored its territorial integrity, the chances of achieving a breakthrough on the negotiation track have become much greater,” he noted.