Peace has already arrived: Mirzoyan speaks on normalization of relations with Azerbaijan

Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan stated that the country aims to leverage its challenging geographical position to transform from a regional 'obstacle' into a logistical bridge between Europe, Central Asia, India, and China.

“We have always thought that we live in a very complex, dangerous region... the task has always been how to turn this threat into an advantage. The task is how to become a bridge rather than an obstacle. We realized that we can connect Europe with Central Asia, with India, China, and this, in turn, can become not only a way to preserve our existence, our sovereignty, but also an additional guarantee of further peaceful prosperity,” the minister noted.

At the same time, as Mirzoyan points out, peace cannot be built alone: “You cannot declare peace and live in peace when your neighbors consider you an enemy and want to destroy you. Thus, the task is to create a situation in which all neighbors, everyone in the region and beyond, are interested in peace. To the north, we have Georgia, with whom we have always had friendly relations. To the south, we have Iran, with whom we have also always had friendly relations and cooperation. To the west and east, we have Turkey and Azerbaijan, and we have been in conflict with Azerbaijan for decades, with closed borders to the west and east.

However, we have started a dialogue, we have initialed a peace treaty with Azerbaijan. It has not yet been signed or ratified, but peace has already arrived: we have no casualties, Azerbaijan has lifted the ban on the transportation of goods to and from Armenia through its territory, and we have started bilateral trade with Azerbaijan. We buy petroleum products from Azerbaijan and will sell some goods to Azerbaijani companies.”

At the same time, the Foreign Minister acknowledged that he does not intend to overstate the achievements in this direction, stating that “not all issues are resolved”: “We had a bloody conflict. The wounds are very fresh, and the societies of the two countries need real reconciliation.”

Source: News.am