President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. Archival photoBAKU, May 22.The head of the European Council, Charles Michel, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, during a meeting on Sunday, discussed the preparation of a peace treaty between Baku and Yerevan and other issues of ensuring peace in the Transcaucasus, follows from the press service of the Azerbaijani leader. «During the meeting (May 22 in Brussels) President Ilham Aliyev highly appreciated the support provided by Charles Michel in the process of preparing a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan, normalizing relations between the two countries, opening transport corridors, delimiting and demarcating borders,» the message says.
Aliyev announced a turning point in the normalization of relations with ArmeniaAliev recalled the five principles proposed to Yerevan by Baku in order to normalize relations and sign a peace agreement, and stressed that they play a major role in the preparation of the document. The head of state once again announced the readiness of the Azerbaijani parties to begin negotiations on delimitation, stressed the importance of solving the problem of mines in the territories liberated from occupation and clarifying the fate of about four thousand people who were considered missing during the first Karabakh war. The President of Azerbaijan also pointed out the need for the Armenian side to fulfill all the points of the tripartite statements (Aliev — Russian President Vladimir Putin — Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan) dated November 10, 2020. In turn, Michel once again expressed his determination to support the process of normalizing relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and promised to continue efforts in this direction. On May 22, the Aliyev-Michel-Pashinyan meeting in Brussels will be the third in a similar format. The previous meetings took place on December 14, 2021 and April 6, 2022. Following the meeting on April 6, the Armenian Cabinet announced that Pashinyan and Aliyev instructed their Foreign Ministries to begin preparations for peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan. An agreement was also reached to establish a bilateral commission on the delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border by the end of April, in accordance with the Sochi agreement of November 26, 2021. among the civilian population. The parties made several attempts to conclude a truce, but the tripartite agreement reached on the night of November 10 was successful. With the mediation of Moscow, Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed to a complete ceasefire and exchange of prisoners and bodies of the dead. Yerevan also handed over to Baku the Kelbajar and Lachin regions, as well as part of the Aghdam region, which since 1994 have been under the control of the unrecognized NKR. In addition, Russian peacekeepers have been stationed in the region.
The peace agenda with Azerbaijan cannot be one-sided, Pashinyan said
