At a media forum in Stepanakert, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev praised the recent statement by the Armenian Prime Minister. Nikol Pashinyan noted that "it was necessary to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan earlier." Aliyev emphasized that he had repeatedly offered Pashinyan this option over the years.
Addressing Armenia again, the Azerbaijani President insisted on amending the Constitution and agreeing to abolish the OSCE Minsk Group, stating that after that it would be possible to move on to signing a peace treaty. In addition, at the media forum, Azerbaijani Presidential Aide Hikmet Hajiyev said that the recent meeting between Ilham Aliyev and Nikol Pashinyan in Abu Dhabi was held in a constructive atmosphere and without the involvement of mediators.
Hajiyev emphasized that it was this format that contributed to tangible progress in the negotiations. According to him, positive progress has been made in agreeing on the text of the peace agreement and in the process of border delimitation.
Gadzhiev mentioned that the parties discussed the possibility of initialing the agreement, but this is hampered by unresolved issues, namely the presence of contradictory provisions in the Armenian constitution and the lack of a decision on the final liquidation of the OSCE Minsk Group.
Commenting on the media forum, Azerbaijani human rights activist Arif Yunusov, who lives in exile, called the participants' hushing up of the situation with political prisoners, of whom there are currently about 400, "the height of cynicism".
"The height of cynicism is that there are 375 political prisoners in Azerbaijan, 29 of whom are journalists, 9 of whom are women! Against this background, the country's authorities are holding another, already the third, so-called "Global Media Forum", to which 140 people from 52 countries have been invited. “And if only one of them had raised the issue of journalists arrested in Azerbaijan, convicted on obviously fabricated charges or awaiting sentencing...,” the human rights activist complained on Facebook.
