“The draft peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan has been agreed upon and is awaiting signing,” Pashinian wrote on Facebook. “I propose to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to begin consultations on signing the agreed draft peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan.”
Pashinian made two similar posts on Wednesday amid continuing Azerbaijani claims about Armenian ceasefire violations along the border between the two countries. The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry has issued at least 11 such statements since Sunday.
The Armenian side has flatly denied all of them. Even so, Pashinian assured Baku that he has ordered Armenian troops “not to commit any violations of the ceasefire regime.”
Armenian opposition figures and political analysts have suggested that the Azerbaijani claims are aimed at preparing the ground for another attack on Armenia or forcing Pashinian to make more concessions to Baku.
Yerevan already made a number of concessions last week to remove the remaining disagreements on the text of the draft treaty. The Azerbaijani leadership has since repeatedly made clear that its signing is conditional on a change of Armenia’s constitution and the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group on Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry objected to these preconditions on Wednesday. By contrast, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, Armen Grigorian, appeared to downplay them.
“This is a rather diplomatic approach to the issue,” Grigorian told reporters. He also said that Pashinian’s multiple appeals to Aliyev are part of the Armenian government’s efforts to advance its “peace agenda.”
The Armenian opposition has for years said that Pashinian’s appeasement policy towards Azerbaijan only encourages Aliyev to seek more Armenian concessions and will not bring real peace. Even before the latest progress in Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks, opposition leaders claimed that Pashinian is desperate to secure an incomplete peace deal in hopes of misleading Armenians and increasing his chances of holding on to power.
