Speaking at an international conference in Yerevan, Pashinian again said Baku and Yerevan fully agree on the preamble and 13 of the 16 articles of a draft peace treaty discussed by them.
“We propose to take what is agreed upon at the moment, sign it, have a basic document, and then continue discussions on the remaining issues,” he said.
Pashinian first publicly floated the idea during an August 31 news conference held hours after the Armenian Foreign Ministry formally communicated fresh peace proposals to the Azerbaijani side. The latter was quick to reject it, with Azerbaijan Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov saying that the framework deal proposed by Yerevan lacks several “important provisions.”
In a statement issued late on Monday, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman, Aykhan Hajizade, said Yerevan is trying to “turn a blind eye” to those outstanding issues.” He did not disclose them.
“As of now, about 80 percent of the draft has been agreed, but this does not mean that the agreement should be signed, as the Armenian side proposes,” he said.
Hajizade also reiterated the Azerbaijani demands for a change of Armenia’s constitution which Baku says contains territorial claims to Azerbaijan. This is a necessary condition for the signing of the peace treaty, he said.
Hajizade reaffirmed Baku’s stance when he responded to Pashinian later on Tuesday. He rejected as “unacceptable” Yerevan’s insistence on “excluding the non-agreed points from the draft treaty.”
Pashinian’s offer to sign the partial peace deal has also been criticized by the Armenian opposition. Opposition leaders say he is desperate to sign such a document in hopes of misleading Armenians into thinking that he has achieved peace and thus increasing his chances of holding on to power.
Artur Khachatrian, a senior member of the main opposition Hayastan alliance, said on Tuesday that Baku will refuse to sign the peace treaty as long as it can clinch more concessions from Pashinian.
“There has been no negotiation process between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” Khachatrian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “There have been demands by Azerbaijan and unilateral concessions by the Armenian authorities.”
Artur Hovannisian, a senior lawmaker representing Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, denied such concessions made by Yerevan. He claimed that third countries and Russia in particular may be behind Baku’s tough rhetoric on Armenian peace proposals.