“The Armenian side proposes to conclude a peace agreement based on the provisions agreed upon to date,” the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman, Aykhan Hajizade, told the Azerbaijani publication Report. “However, the Azerbaijani side considers such an approach unacceptable and has made this clear. There is a rule that a document is not considered agreed until all its points are agreed."
“In order for the peace agreement to be sustainable and successful, it is necessary to settle the contentious issues remaining in a number of areas,” he said without disclosing them.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian first publicly made the proposal late last month. He has reiterated it on a number of occasions since then despite its repeated rejections by Baku. According to him, the two sides fully agree on the preamble and 13 of the 16 articles of a draft peace treaty discussed by them.
Pashinian insisted on the proposal during a visit to Georgia on Monday. He said Baku and Yerevan should sign the incomplete peace deal, establish diplomatic relations and “continue discussions” on the remaining sticking points.
Armenian opposition leaders claim that Pashinian is desperate to sign such a document in hopes of misleading the domestic public and increasing his chances of holding on to power. They say Azerbaijan will avoid doing that as long as it can bully him into making unilateral concessions.
Baku also makes the signing of the peace treaty conditional on a change of Armenia’s constitution which it says contains territorial claims to Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev reportedly reiterated this precondition on Monday in a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Blinken also spoke with Pashinian by phone on September 12. The U.S. State Department reported few details of those conversations.
“We continue to support the efforts of both countries to reach a durable and dignified peace agreement,” the department spokesman, Matthew Miller, told a news briefing later on Monday. He said Washington is ready to host more Armenian-Azerbaijani talks for that purpose.
The Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers most recently held a trilateral meeting with Blinken in July.