Ilham Aliyev: "Armenia does not want to recognize Azerbaijan's territorial integrity"

"I have repeatedly stated in open that Azerbaijan is ready to launch peace talks with Armenia and work on a peace agreement. So far, no response has been received from the Armenian leadership. I have made such statements many times for more than six months," Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in an interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais in Brussels.

"This shows that they do not want peace because if it is signed, one of the main provisions of the peace agreement will be the mutual recognition of the territorial integrity of both countries, and Armenia does not want to recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. The whole world recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and Karabakh as an integral part of Azerbaijan. Armenia neither recognizes the territorial integrity nor says it does not recognize it. Before the Second Karabakh War, they said, and their Prime Minister openly stated that 'Karabakh is Armenia and the full stop,'" the President said.

According to the head of state, this statement, in fact, destroyed the negotiation process and was one of the elements of their bitter defeat last year: "But now Armenia seems to have no position on this issue. We state very openly that we want to start negotiations on a comprehensive peace agreement with Armenia right away. As you said, this will be a full-fledged peace agreement, not a ceasefire agreement. But I hope that perhaps the European partners will be able to convince Armenia that their position has no future. I think that if there is no peace agreement with Azerbaijan, they may suffer again in the future."