Mirzoyan said Yerevan continues to insist that the treaty should be based on mutual recognition of each other’s Soviet-era borders certified by a 1991 declaration signed by Armenia, Azerbaijan and other newly independent ex-Soviet republics. The two South Caucasus countries should delimit their border accordingly and also retain full control over all transit routes passing through each other’s territory, he said.
“We continue to work with Azerbaijan on these subjects, and in case of progress, of course, you will all be informed,” Mirzoyan told a joint news conference with his visiting Cypriot counterpart Constantinos Kombos.
According to Sargis Khandanian, the chairman of the Armenian parliament committee on foreign relations, Bayramov and Mirzoyan made “some progress on some issues.”
“Nevertheless, if the progress had such that we could talk about possible time frames for the signing [of the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty,] there would have been [official] statements to that effect,” said Khandanian. “As things stand now, I think that further work and new meetings are needed.”
In a statement issued right after the Berlin talks, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said only that the two ministers agreed to “continue negotiations on the open issues.”
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met in another German city, Munich, on February 17. Pashinian said afterwards that Azerbaijan remains reluctant to recognize Armenia’s borders “without ambiguity” and is planning military aggression against his country. Aliyev countered that Baku has no “plans” to invade Armenia.