Armenia is ready to make peace with Azerbaijan without determining of Karabakh – head of Armenian Security Council

The Armenian government has declared the peace agenda of its state strategy, and takes responsibility for its implementation. This was stated by the head of the Armenian Security Council Armen Grigoryan in an interview with "Armenpress" on July 30.

The roadmap for this is the work on the delimitation and enhancement of the security level of the border with Azerbaijan, as well as the opening of regional communications, he said.

"We are very interested in opening regional communications, which is a part of the "Armenian Crossroads" project. Of course, the issue of a specific route of the east-west section of the project can be discussed, we have never insisted on only one option, and we need to find the most effective route, because the functionality and attractiveness of the "Armenian Crossroads" project depends on it," Gorigorian said.

Asked about what will happen to the status of Karabakh and whether Armenia recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan? Grigoryan replied as follows:

"We have repeatedly said that Armenia and Azerbaijan recognized the territorial integrity and inviolability of each other's borders by the Treaty on CIS Formation signed and subsequently ratified in 1991. And today this document is a part of the legislation of both Armenia and Azerbaijan. This needs to be expressed at the bilateral level that Armenia has no territorial claims against Azerbaijan.

We have repeatedly said that the Karabakh issue is not a territorial issue for us. In this sense, the security and rights of the Armenians of Karabakh are of fundamental importance to us." At the same time, he did not rule out that a peace agreement with Azerbaijan would be signed without determining the status of Karabakh.

Asked about what will be the security guarantees for the Armenians of Karabakh? Grigoryan replied that the presence of the peacekeeping forces of the Russian Federation is an international guarantee. "We need to work on further improving this guarantee, however, the demilitarization of the Nagorno-Karabakh problem is an important idea," he added.

Touching upon the issue of Armenian prisoners and the resolution of humanitarian issues, Grigoryan said that over the past two years Armenia has handed over to Azerbaijan 130 bodies of Azerbaijanis who went missing in the First Karabakh War. "We are ready to actively cooperate in this issue and expect the same from Azerbaijan. There are more than 770 missing persons from the Armenian side since the First Karabakh War. The number of our missing in the 44-day war is 203 people."

Grigoryan confirmed that Armenia is starting construction of its section of a new road bypassing Lachin - Kornidzor-Tech-M12. "The construction will be completed within the deadlines as set forth in the trilateral statement of November 9, 2020," he said.