Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian is ready to sign a peace deal with Azerbaijan by the end of the year based on the principles outlined in meetings with European mediators, he said on October 17.
Pashinian told the European Parliament in Strasbourg that Armenia is ready to sign the agreement based on mutual recognition of sovereignty and territorial integrity and the opening of regional transportation links based on the sovereignty of the territories through which they pass.
Specifically, he said Yerevan is ready to open the Meghri railway, known as the Zangezur Corridor in Azerbaijan, under the jurisdiction of Armenia.
If the principles are reaffirmed, “it will become very realistic to sign an agreement on peace and relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan before the end of the year," Pashinian said in his speech.
Pashinian also said he is ready to develop relations with the European Union and is ready to be as close to the EU as Brussels deems possible.
Armenia is currently working to meet the needs of more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians who fled Nagorno-Karabakh after a rapid offensive last month that resulted in Azerbaijan recapturing the breakaway territory.
Armenia describes their flight as ethnic cleansing driven by the threat of violence, but Azerbaijan says the Armenian civilians left voluntarily even though they were welcome to stay in Nagorno-Karabakh and be integrated into Azerbaijani society.
Pashinian also commented on the security situation, again complaining that Yerevan's allies left it to fend for itself during Azerbaijan's offensive.
"At the time when hundreds of thousands of Armenians fled from Nagorno Karabakh to the Republic of Armenia, our allies in the security sector not only did not help us, but also made public calls for a change of power in Armenia, to overthrow the democratic government," Pashinian said.
He did not name Russia, which is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) along with Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.
"In this situation, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, which is considered the security system of Armenia, and the countries with bilateral security obligations to Armenia did not help us at all,” he said. “They left us alone.”
The purpose of this “provocation,” he said was to cause the upcoming parliamentary elections to fail and to paralyze the statehood of Armenia or at least its ability to form a temporary government.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, reacting to the speech, accused Pashinian of using "aggressive rhetoric" that harms peace prospects at a time when there are historic opportunities for the South Caucasus region to become a place of peace and cooperation.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev made his first visit to the territories retaken by Azerbaijan on October 15 and raised Azerbaijan's flag in the city known as Xankendi to Azeris and Stepanakert to the territory's ethnic Armenians.
With reporting by Reuters