Eduard Aghajanian, the chairman of the Armenian parliament committee on foreign relations, also confirmed that Baku has responded to Yerevan’s recent proposals regarding an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty.
“The Armenian side has received Azerbaijani proposals that are in essence a reaction to the Armenian proposals,” he told a news conference. “As regards a possible meeting of the leaders or the foreign ministers of our countries before the end of the year, I think that it cannot be excluded.”
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian were due to meet in Brussels on December 7. Aliyev cancelled the meeting late last month, objecting to French President Emmanuel Macron’s participation in it.
A European diplomatic source said last week that the European Union keeps trying to arrange the summit this month.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov did not the rule out possibility of such a meeting during a visit to Moscow on Monday.
Bayramov also indicated that the Armenian proposals are not acceptable to his government. He said Baku continues to insist that the peace accord be based on key elements which it presented to Yerevan in March this year.
Those elements include mutual recognition by Armenia and Azerbaijan of each other’s territorial integrity. This would presumably mean Armenian recognition of Azerbaijani sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last week Pashinian effectively agreed to such recognition in a joint statement with Aliyev, Macron and EU chief Charles Michel issued after their October 6 meeting in Prague. Lavrov appeared to stand by his statement at a joint news conference with Bayramov.
Lavrov based his claims on the Prague statement’s reference to a 1991 declaration signed by Armenia and other newly independent Soviet republics in Kazakhstan.
Aghajanian and other Armenian pro-government lawmakers countered on Tuesday that the declaration does not apply to Karabakh and its status.