The two sides have exchanged in recent months written proposals regarding the treaty which Baku hopes will help to restore full Azerbaijani control over Nagorno-Karabakh. Few of their details have been made public so far.
Agnesa Khamoyan, a parliament deputy from the main opposition Hayastan alliance, said on Wednesday that two months ago she sent a letter to Armen Grigorian, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, asking him to let her see Yerevan’s proposals sent to Baku.
“As a member of the National Assembly, I have a right to familiarize myself with that document,” said Khamoyan. “They have not replied to me.”
She accused Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government of deliberately withholding such information from the public.
“They present one thing to the public but clearly negotiate on something else,” she claimed.
Hayk Konjorian, the parliamentary leader of Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, dismissed the opposition complaints when he addressed the National Assembly on Tuesday. Konjorian argued that opposition lawmakers have previously turned down Pashinian’s offers to meet with them behind the closed doors to discuss details of the negotiating process.
“I can read and don’t need any intermediaries,” countered Khamoyan. “I can read that treaty and don’t need any assistants, whether it’s Nikol Pashinian or somebody else.”
Hayastan and the second parliamentary opposition force, Pativ Unem, regularly accuse Pashinian of being ready to recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh. As recently as on Tuesday, the Armenian parliament’s pro-government majority rejected a Hayastan proposal to adopt a resolution voicing support for the Karabakh Armenians’ right to self-determination.
Parliament speaker Alen Simonian said late last month that Yerevan and Baku continue to disagree on “three or four” elements of the would-be peace treaty. He did not disclose them.
Pashinian complained last week that the Azerbaijani side is rejecting most Armenian proposals on the would-be treaty and making more demands unacceptable to Armenia. He said that he will not sign any “capitulation” deals.
For his part, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev declared at the weekend that he will not sign such an accord unless Yerevan recognizes Karabakh as a part of Azerbaijan and accepts Baku’s terms for demarcating the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. The Armenian Foreign Ministry responded by accusing Aliyev of “doing everything to make peace in the region impossible.”