The two men met on the sidelines of an international security forum in the Turkish city of Antalya. They did not signal further progress towards a resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict when they spoke at a joint panel discussion held later in the day.
Bayramov reaffirmed Baku’s position that the signing of a bilateral peace treaty finalized last month is conditional on Armenia changing its constitution and agreeing to the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group on Nagorno-Karabakh.
“After the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group and the elimination of territorial claims [to Azerbaijan], there will be no obstacles to normalizing relations with Armenia,” he said.
“There is nothing in the constitution of the Republic of Armenia saying that Karabakh is part of Armenia,” countered Mirzoyan.
He also repeated Yerevan’s arguments that that the draft peace treaty commits the two states to recognizing each other’s territorial integrity and stipulates that they cannot refer to their domestic legislation to justify their failure to implement it.
“This sentence answers so many questions and so many concerns,” said Mirzoyan. “Are we going to build on this or are we going to undermine this very tangible, historic accomplishment and then bring another issue to the table of negotiations and then another issue? It could become a never-ending process.”
Mirzoyan went on to complain about the lack of a “positive answer” from Baku to Armenian proposals regarding simplified procedures for the transit of cargo and people between Azerbaijan and its Nakhichevan exclave through Armenian territory.
“There are electronic scanners which will allow us to avoid physical check of the goods, of the cargo, to use electronic declarations, which could be exchanged between respective agencies, again, allowing us to have this transit at its maximum possible speed,” he said.
Bayramov made clear that Baku continues to insist on the opening of an extraterritorial land corridor for Nakhichevan. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev renewed in January this year his threats to open such a corridor by force.
Aliyev also warned last week that Armenia will risk a “new military confrontation” with Azerbaijan unless it changes its constitution. The Armenian government’s domestic critics portrayed the statement as a further sign that Aliyev has no intention to settle the conflict before clinching further concessions that would prelude Armenia’s very existence as a viable state.
Mirzoyan lamented Azerbaijan’s continuing “threats to again use force” during the Antalya forum described by him as “fantastic.”