Armenia legislative body chair: OSCE Minsk Group’s meaning will be lost when peace treaty is signed with Azerbaijan

On its part, Armenia is taking steps, which are the conclusion of the peace treaty with Azerbaijan, and the talks about the OSCE Minsk Group are the talks that can be after the conclusion of the peace treaty. Speaker of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia, Alen Simonyan, told this to reporters Friday in the NA—and referring to Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev’s statement that they proposed to the Armenian side that they jointly petition to the OSCE to abolish its Minsk Group.

“If we sign a peace treaty, its [i.e. the OSCE Minsk Group] meaning is simply lost because is it not the same Azerbaijan that says that as if Armenia has some ambitions, some demands [from Azerbaijan]. We will sign the peace treaty, the issue will come out. I think there will be no need for it. I don’t understand why Aliyev tries to attack the peace process every time we already have agreements,” said Simonyan.

“It would be good if Mr. [Azerbaijani] President talked about the [Armenian] massacres in Sumgait, the [Armenian] massacres in Baku, he should have talked about that [Armenian] genocide first if we are going to peace. The party that wants peace should first of all point out, emphasize the open places that can hinder peace, instead of talking about such things,” said Simonyan and added that such torpedoing is not acceptable, and Azerbaijan should first release the Armenian prisoners of war.

As for Aliyev’s statement that Armenia has “territorial claims from Azerbaijan” under the clause stipulated in its constitution, the Armenian parliament speaker said as follows, in part: “I can only repeat the position of the [Armenian] MFA and say that I cannot add anything to it. The constitution [of Armenia] is our internal matter, we have been talking about the constitution for a long time, but not in that context. We have seen the need for very big changes globally after 2018 and have initiated them in 2020.”

And to the question as to what the current opposition movement in Armenia has to do with Aliyev’s demands, Alen Simonyan responded: “See, we forward the proposals in the ninth edition [of the peace treaty] to Azerbaijan. After that, the minister of foreign affairs of Azerbaijan announces that it is positive. But now they are trying to take advantage and weaken us in this situation. When they see that some internal process is happening, they should play with each other with passes. I’m pretty sure they’re processes being directed from the same location. From where the desire to change power in Armenia is directed, combined with attacks on Armenia’s sovereign territory. From where invitations to rallies are directed.”

Alen Simonyan added that this is a political statement on his part.