Hikmet Hajiyev, a top foreign policy adviser to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, said earlier this week that Baku believes "the border delimitation issue should be kept separate from peace treaty discussions."
“I think that we could consider such a practice because that [delimitation process] … could take years,” Simonian said, commenting on Hajiyev’s statement. “In my view, a country seeking a real peace will have no problems with such things.”
“So I think that yes, such a thing can be done after we settle some issues, sign the peace treaty and bring peace to our societies,” he told reporters.
Armen Rustamian, a senior member of the main opposition Hayastan alliance, expressed concern over Simonian’s remarks, saying that delinking the peace treaty from the border delimitation is “only in Azerbaijan’s interests.”
“We have to make sure that there are no occasions for new tensions and conflicts in the future,” said Rustamian. “And the more uncertainty there is in the treaty, the higher their likelihood will be.”
Ongoing border disputes have been one of the main sticking points in Armenian-Azerbaijani talks on the treaty. Armenia has said until now that the peace deal must contain a concrete mechanism for the border delimitation. It insists on using late Soviet-era military maps for that purpose. Baku rejects the idea backed by the European Union.
Yerevan also wants the treaty to explicitly uphold the territorial integrity of the two South Caucasus states. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and other Armenian officials have said Azerbaijan should specifically recognize Armenia’s internationally recognized area of 29,800 square kilometers.
Eduard Aghajanian, another lawmaker representing Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, insisted on Friday that this remains the most important element of the would-be treaty for the Armenian side.
“It’s still too early to say whether this will be done parallel to the delimitation process … or in another format,” he said.
Speaking to the BBC on Tuesday, Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanian said that Baku is “reluctant to finalize” such a peace deal. Kostanian had suggested earlier that it wants to leave the door open for future territorial claims to Armenia. Some Armenian analysts believe this is the reason why Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev keeps delaying further negotiations mediated by the United States and the European Union.