Azerbaijani President: 'Trilateral declaration is not a ceasefire agreement, but it is also not a peace agreement'

“Because when Second Karabakh War ended, not many actors knew what will be next. Because the trilateral declaration, it is not a ceasefire agreement, but it is also not a peace agreement. So, what should happen next was under a big question mark,” said the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, as he addressed the 4th international conference on “Shaping the Geopolitics of the Greater Eurasia: from Past to Present to Future” dedicated to the 100th anniversary of National Leader Heydar Aliyev in Shusha, Report informs, citing AZERTAC.

The head of state noted, “So, it was us who made the initiative. It was us who put forward the vision for the future, for integrated Southern Caucasus, for regional cooperation, for normalization of relations. Therefore, we put an initiative to start peace talks, there was silence from all directions. Then waiting for some time, we put forward these famous five principles, which are totally in line with norms and principles of international law and Armenia formally had to either reject it or to accept it. Rejecting it would have demonstrated them again being unconstructive because there was nothing in contradiction with international law in these principles. Accepting it, probably it was difficult for them from a psychological point of view and from a point of view of agreeing to normal behavior. So, then we a had long, how to say, break again, because of Armenian unwillingness to engage in serious negotiations.”