Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev expressed hope that 2023 could be a yr of progress in normalizing relations between his nation and Armenia as he acquired Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Baku on Monday.
Relations between the previous Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian army illegally occupied Karabakh, a territory internationally acknowledged as a part of Azerbaijan, and 7 adjoining areas. Clashes erupted on Sept. 27, 2020, with the Armenian Army attacking civilians and Azerbaijani forces, violating a number of humanitarian cease-fire agreements. During the 44-day battle, Azerbaijan liberated a number of cities and round 300 settlements and villages that Armenia had occupied for nearly 30 years. The preventing ended with a Russian-brokered settlement on Nov. 10, 2020, which was seen as a victory for Azerbaijan and a defeat for Armenia. However, the cease-fire has been violated a number of occasions since then.
Aliyev thanked Russia for actively resolving points between Baku and Yerevan. “Russia, as our friend, ally and neighbor, has a special role in helping regulate interstate relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Last year, a substantial effort was made in this direction, and documents defining the conceptual nature of the future peace agreement, namely the mutual recognition of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the two countries, were adopted. This was confirmed by the documents adopted in Prague and Sochi last October. These documents have laid the foundation that can be used for reaching a peace agreement. In any case, we are determined to do positive and constructive work with the Armenian side and our friend and neighbor, Russia, to quickly turn the page of this hostility and return peace to the South Caucasus,” Azerbaijan’s President mentioned.
For his half, Lavrov mentioned regional safety stays a really related matter in Russia’s bilateral and multilateral relations. “Many of our international colleagues, including those far from this region, are showing great interest in creating conditions for progress in normalizing relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia. As President Putin has repeatedly said, we welcome all efforts aimed at stabilizing the situation and creating conditions for all countries located in this region to have the opportunity to cooperate in the interests of their countries and peoples based on mutual respect and mutual benefit,” the Russian minister mentioned.
Earlier this month, Armenia introduced a complete peace treaty to Azerbaijan to finish the decadeslong dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh area. The two international locations have fought two wars to regulate Azerbaijan’s Armenian-populated enclave, which has claimed tens of hundreds of lives.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has introduced that Yerevan had accomplished “another stage of working on a project of a peace treaty and on establishing (diplomatic) relations” with Baku. “The document has to be acceptable to Azerbaijan … its signing must bring about a lasting peace,” Pashinian claimed. In addition, an settlement would offer for monitoring mechanisms by either side to forestall breaches of the peace. Copies have been despatched to Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) members Russia, the United States and France. These international locations are co-chairs of the Minsk Group arrange by the OSCE in 1992 to hunt a peaceable answer to the battle. Pashinian’s announcement got here after Yerevan accused Baku of conducting a “policy of ethnic cleansing” and forcing ethnic Armenians to depart the area. Since mid-December, Azerbaijani environmental activists have allegedly blocked the one highway linking Karabakh to Armenia to protest unlawful mining within the space. According to Yerevan, nevertheless, the blockade has led to a “full-blown humanitarian crisis” within the mountainous area, which faces meals shortages, medicines and gas.
‘Illegal exploitation’
Baku has filed an arbitration case in opposition to Yerevan underneath the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), a global settlement specializing in cross-border cooperation primarily within the fossil vitality trade, for exploiting vitality sources within the Karabakh area. “In a Notice of Arbitration served on Armenia, Azerbaijan seeks redress and financial compensation for Armenia’s violation of Azerbaijan’s sovereign rights over its energy resources during Armenia’s nearly 30-year illegal occupation of Azerbaijan’s territory from 1991 to 2020,” an announcement by the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry mentioned Monday. The assertion mentioned Armenia breached a number of provisions of the ECT, in addition to elementary ideas of worldwide legislation, by denying Azerbaijan entry to its vitality sources within the area, exploiting Azerbaijan’s vitality sources for its personal profit and depriving Azerbaijan of additional growing its vitality sources.
Armenia’s initiatives on this regard embrace the exploitation of the Karabakh area’s hydropower sources and amenities, and the development of a minimum of 37 further unauthorized hydropower amenities, the assertion added. “To facilitate its illegal exploitation of Azerbaijan’s hydropower, Armenia established a ‘whole unified system’ of electricity distribution from the formerly occupied territories to Armenia, ‘regulated from Armenia’ the ‘daily volume of electricity production’ and granted putative ‘licenses’ to energy companies to operate the region’s existing facilities,” the ministry mentioned. According to the assertion, Armenia additionally exploited Azerbaijan’s coal sources by “constructing additional energy infrastructure on Azerbaijan’s territory” and broken current amenities. “This arbitration case is an effort to secure justice and reparations for nearly 30 years of illegal exploitation and expropriation of Azerbaijan’s energy resources by Armenia, on Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized sovereign territory,” the assertion mentioned.
Last month, Azerbaijan filed an identical lawsuit for inter-state arbitration underneath the Bern Convention, aimed toward holding Armenia accountable for the “extensive destruction” of the surroundings and biodiversity in Karabakh.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
