BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 29. Certain political measures negatively affect the peace agenda in the South Caucasus, Assistant to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Head of the Foreign Policy Department of the Presidential Administration Hikmet Hajiyev said in an interview with the Chinese Phoenix TV channel, TurkicWorld reports.
He recalled that Azerbaijan was compelled to exercise its right to self-defense in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter to ensure the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country.
"We are faced with double standards. We have to accept that foreign policy justifies military occupation and hostility, and it even promotes secession. This is intolerable for Azerbaijan, just like it is for any other nation. We have turned the page and ensured peace and security. It is probably very difficult, but sometimes it becomes necessary to ensure peace on the ground. Now Armenia and Azerbaijan are closer to peace than ever before. The last six months on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border have been among the calmest in the history of the two countries. We have witnessed the chairmanship of the OSCE Minsk Group. For 30 years, it has been negotiating but has not achieved much. The occupation continued, and we were far from peace. Now peace is close. There is de facto peace on the ground," Hajiyev said.
He emphasized that Azerbaijan's vision is to turn the Caucasus region into a region of peace and cooperation.
"We have drafted the text of the peace treaty despite being the object of military occupation, and we have also formulated five fundamental principles of the peace treaty for the Republic of Armenia. We are making good progress regarding the peace treaty, but Azerbaijan's approach is that peace should be between Baku and Yerevan because this region belongs to us. Peace is not in Washington, Brussels, or Paris. Peace is here—in the South Caucasus region, between the two countries. We see that we are moving forward, but certain political measures negatively affect regional cooperation and a peaceful agenda," Hajiyev said.
