Arusyak Julhakian, an Armenian parliamentarian from the ruling Civil Contract party, charged that the Azerbaijani leadership has “once again torpedoed the peace process.”
“It’s clear that Baku constantly tries to invent excuses in order not to sign a peace treaty,” she told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “Every time Armenia comes up with a new constructive proposal … Azerbaijan either sets yet another unfeasible condition or makes such statements. My impression is that Azerbaijan is doing all this in order to constantly delay the process and not to sign a peace treaty.”
Pashinian proposed on Saturday that the two sides sign a document containing at least 13 of the 17 articles of a draft peace treaty which he said have been fully agreed by them. He said they cover “all basic principles of peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan.”
Azerbaijan essentially rejected the offer on Monday, with Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov saying that the framework deal proposed by Yerevan lacks several “important provisions.” Bayramov and another Azerbaijani official, Himet Hajiyev, also reiterated that Armenia must change its constitution before it can make peace with Azerbaijan. In addition, Hajiyev demanded a reduction of the Armenian armed forces.
The Armenian government did not officially react as of Tuesday afternoon to Baku’s response and the new conditions apparently set by it.
Armenian opposition leaders have likewise scoffed at Pashinian’s offer to sign a partial peace deal with Azerbaijan. They claimed over the weekend that Pashinian is desperate to sign even such an incomplete document in hopes of misleading Armenians into thinking that he has achieved peace and thus increasing his chances of holding on to power.
Pashinian’s domestic critics are also very critical of his broader appeasement policy towards Azerbaijan, saying that it only encourages Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to seek more Armenian concessions.