Azeri envoy: Baku sees problems with Armenia's formal statements and legislation
In addition to the Declaration of Independence, Baku also sees problems with other documents adopted by Armenia, Elchin Amirbayov, Azerbaijan's senior envoy for special assignments who has been closely involved in the negotiations, told RFE/RL on Friday.
Amirbayov said there are "several other claims" to Nagormo-Karabakh in Armenia's formal statements and legislation. For example, when Armenia's legislature ratified the 1991 Alma Ata accords, which accepted Soviet republic borders as the borders of the newly independent states, lawmakers added language saying that it did not apply to Karabakh. He also called attention to language on the Armenian Foreign Ministry website saying that Nagorno-Karabakh is "an integral part of historic Armenia," and recent Armenian filings in the European Court of Human Rights that imply a claim on Azerbaijan.
"We have pointed the attention of the Armenian side to those facts many times, during our [in-person] negotiations, but also through different exchanges of comments," he said. "And the Armenian side acknowledges that this is the fact, but nothing is being done."
The Armenian Foreign Ministry declined to respond to RFE/RL's request for comments.
But Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan has alluded to the process Amirbayov described. "As part of the peace process, each side has noted problems in the other's legal framework and informed it about that, and both sides have provided relevant clarifications," he told RFE/RL's Armenian Service on January 25. "There will definitely be such discussions."