“We have now achieved de facto peace.”
Operative Information Center-OMM reports that Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov made the statement in an address to the general debate of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly.
“Despite the decades-long conflict with Armenia causing immense suffering to our people and leaving deep scars on our territory, Azerbaijan has chosen to look to the future and turn the page on hostility.
We have offered Armenia peace based on the mutual recognition and respect for each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, in full compliance with the norms and principles of international law.
As a result of our normalization efforts, historic outcomes were achieved at the Washington Peace Summit in August last year. At that summit, the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a Joint Declaration in the presence of U.S. President Donald Trump. Through this declaration, both sides confirmed that the conflict had ended and expressed their joint commitment to building a peaceful and prosperous future. The parties also initialed the Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and Interstate Relations.
We have now achieved de facto peace. In addition, Azerbaijan has unilaterally lifted transit restrictions, facilitating the movement of goods to and from Armenia. We have also established bilateral trade ties. Despite growing instability in international markets and increased global demand for these products, Azerbaijan regularly supplies Armenia with strategically important petroleum products.
As we advance the peace agenda initiated by Azerbaijan, our entire region is becoming a promising hub for stability, connectivity and tangible economic dividends.
To ensure the irreversibility of this process, it is critically necessary to remove the remaining obstacle to finalizing the normalization process by signing the bilateral agreement that has already been initialed.”
Alongside the regional normalization process, Azerbaijan’s post-conflict reconstruction agenda ultimately aims to enable hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis to exercise their right to return to their homes safely and with dignity,” the MFA chief emphasized.
