Aliyev: What happened in Washington on August 8 is actually the end  of the Armenian-Azerbaijani confrontation

ArmInfo. What happened in Washington on August 8 is actually the end of the Armenian-Azerbaijani confrontation and a way out of the deadlock.  Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev made this statement in an  interview with Saudi Arabia's Al-Arabiya TV channel.

Boasting about the military solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh  conflict, Aliyev said that after the 44-day war in 2020, a certain  vacuum emerged in the negotiation process, as the mediators did not  know what to do next. According to him, it was Azerbaijan that  proposed launching a peace process with Armenia and presented a draft  peace agreement. "In essence, the document initialed in Washington on  August 8 is based on the Azerbaijani version of the vision for  settling interstate relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan," he  noted.

He assured that the agreements reached between Yerevan and Baku in  Washington are truly the end of the conflict, the end of the war.  "Formally, the peace agreement was not signed for one specific  reason: the Armenian constitution still contains a provision that  questions the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. As far as we  understand, they will make an amendment. And as soon as this  constitutional amendment is made, as soon as the territorial claims  against Azerbaijan are withdrawn, an official peace agreement will be  signed," Aliyev added, while assuring that the initialing of the  document means the end of the war.

Aliyev assured that this opens up completely new opportunities for  the South Caucasus region and for the wider region of Central Asia  and the Middle East. However, the Azerbaijani leader assures that if  Armenia suddenly deviates from the Washington agreements in the event  of domestic political changes, "this will seriously worsen relations  between Armenia and the United States." "Therefore, we are positive  in this regard. Violating this agreement would mean going against the  whole world. And what will they gain from this? What was signed in  Washington is a guarantee of peace and stable development for  Armenia. In other words, if any future government of Armenia,  regardless of when it comes to power, questions what was signed in  Washington, then Armenia will face serious consequences, as the  balance of power in the region is absolutely in our favor in all  respects. I think this is obvious to everyone, and if Armenia again  questions our territorial integrity, we will respond adequately,"  Aliyev threatened.

Speaking about the so-called Trump route, Aliyev went into history  and distorted the entire history of the early 1900s, attributing  Nakhichevan to Azerbaijan and forgetting that this Armenian territory  was transferred to Azerbaijan by the Soviet authorities and this land  was never Azerbaijani. He then assured that Azerbaijan could have  taken this territory by force in 2020, but did not take this step out  of good intentions.

"We did not seize this part of the territory by force, but we told  Armenia that it cannot hinder our connection with Nakhichevan,"  Aliyev said.

At the same time, he believes that the Trump route is very close to  implementation, and now Armenia will have to do its part of the work.  "This is not only about connecting parts of Azerbaijan. It is about  building a new transport route.  Today, the Middle Corridor, or  rather one of its branches, starts in Asia and passes through the  Caspian Sea, through Azerbaijan to Georgia and further to Turkey and  Europe, as well as to Georgian seaports. This is the only way to  connect Asia with Europe through Azerbaijan. Thus, the Zangezur  Corridor, or TRIPP, will become an alternative. The second corridor  will pass through Armenia's territory. And this is beneficial for  Armenia. I tried to convey this idea to my Armenian colleague - that,  ultimately, they will become a transit country. Considering that the  volume of cargo from Asia to Europe through Azerbaijan is growing  from year to year, I am sure that this corridor will become an  important transport link connecting the continents," he added.

It is worth noting that touching upon Iran's stance, Aliyev welcomed  the stance of the President and the Foreign Minister and called the  position of the advisers to the spiritual leader of the country  completely unimportant. Aliyev also reaffirmed that "together with  his Armenian colleague, we nominated President Trump for the Nobel  Peace Prize," assuring that Trump deserves it.