Speaking in Azerbaijan’s newly elected parliament fully controlled by his regime, Aliyev said he will continue a military buildup due to what he called “revanchist tendencies” in Armenia.
“We are reinforcing our positions on the presumable border [with Armenia] because any provocation can be expected from Armenia at any time,” he said. “Armenia and any country standing behind it must understand that it is not possible to talk to us in the language of blackmail and we are ready and able to give any response.”
Pashinian did not comment on these veiled threats or the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict in general in a speech at a global “summit of the future” held during an ongoing session of the UN General Assembly. He discussed instead “today’s global crisis” and “prerequisites of a good future” for the world. He urged the international community to “create positive narratives … regardless of whether they exist at the moment or not.”
“My party adopted [during Armenia’s 2021 parliamentary election campaign] the slogan ‘There is a future’ under the conditions when it seemed that there was no hope for optimism in our region,” Pashinian said in English. “Now this happens globally. And at this Summit of the Future, I want to voice that belief of ‘there is a future’ and by doing this I want to have my portion of contribution.”
Azerbaijan -- President Ilham Aliyev addresses the first session of the new parliament, September 23, 2024.
Addressing the General Assembly later on Monday, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister said Armenia should move quickly to eliminate the remaining obstacles to peace with Azerbaijan. For his part, Aliyev accused Yerevan of dragging out Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks. He reaffirmed his rejection of Pashinian’s proposal to sign an interim peace deal that would leave out the remaining disagreements of the two sides.
Baku also makes the signing of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty conditional on a change of Armenia’s constitution which it says contains territorial claims to Azerbaijan. Aliyev renewed this demand in April after forcing Pashinian to hand over four disputed border areas to Azerbaijan.
Armenian opposition leaders strongly condemned that unilateral concession, saying that Pashinian’s appeasement policy will only encourage Baku to make other demands to the Armenian side, rather than bring peace.