Azerbaijani president`s statements blow to peace process - Armenian  premier 

ArmInfo. The statements made by the President of Azerbaijan in an interview given to Azerbaijani TV  media at the beginning of January 2024 as a blow to the peace process, Armenian Premier Nikol Pashinyan stated in an interview with The Telegraph. 

The Telegraph: Roland Oliphant: I think on January 10, President  Aliyev gave a TV interview in which he said some interesting things.  He said that the national project for the reclaiming of Azerbaijan's  territories has been completed and he hoped that in principle there  is no longer any barrier to peace. He also said that if he sees any  sign of Armenia re-arming, he will launch a military action against  Armenia, he reaffirmed his demand for a corridor through the  territory of Armenia to Nakhichevan, he ruled out retreating of his  troops from the territory inside Armenia, from strategic heights,  saying that he needs these areas so that he can keep an eye on  Armenian intentions. Then he rejected your proposal to draw a border  based on the last Soviet military maps, stressing that he would  rather talk about maps from the earlier periods of Sovietization,  because Azerbaijan lost a lot of territory at that time. People,  including representatives of your government, say that with this,  Azerbaijan is laying the groundwork for making territorial demands  from Armenia. In other words, not only Nagorno-Karabakh, but also he  intends to go further and prepare, if not a large-scale invasion,  then at least have claims of your territory. Is this what you think  is happening?

"Of course, these opinions have the right to exist and these  assessments cannot be considered groundless. I publicly assessed the  statements made by the President of Azerbaijan in an interview given  to Azerbaijani TV media at the beginning of January 2024 as a blow to  the peace process, but I described a little while ago that this blow  was not a standalone process and it started, firstly, with ethnic  cleansing in Nagorno- Karabakh, and secondly, with the refusal to  take part in the Granada meeting, continued by the rejection to  participate in the Brussels meeting and the subsequent refusals to  attend meetings.

I also want to note that I recently responded to those statements of  the President of Azerbaijan and I need to state once again that  having an army is the sovereign right of every state, and the  Republic of Armenia, just like any sovereign state, has the right to  have a strong and combat-ready army, with the understanding that that  the Republic of Armenia is creating an army to fortify its  territorial integrity and sovereignty, independence and statehood.  Basically, we have shown with our political positions that we  recognize the territorial integrity of all the countries of our  region and we expect the same from all the countries of our region,  especially given that there is a signed, adopted document regarding  it. See, when I was talking about the Prague quadrilateral statement,  that's exactly what the Prague quadrilateral statement is about. To  talk about the territories at the time of joining the Soviet Union,  you know, I think that discussions about the period of becoming part  of the Soviet Union are not relevant at all in this context. Why?  Because I have already said that the agreement between Armenia and  Azerbaijan was recorded in writing in tripartite and quadrilateral  formats, which state that the two countries recognize each other's  territorial integrity on the basis of the Alma-Ata Declaration," the  Armenian premier said. 

The Telegraph: Roland Oliphant - Do you fear a 3rd war between  Armenia and Azerbaijan?

"Fear is not the right word to use, because the Republic of Armenia  is a democratic, developing state and, as I have already said, the  Republic of Armenia is implementing large-scale reforms to improve  the resilience of the country, and by the way, in recent years, I  think the international community and our community have seen and saw  that the resilience of our country has improved significantly. We  continue the path of reforms to further improve Armenia's resilience.  As for regional destabilization and steps towards it, of course,  anyone with common sense would be concerned," Mr Pashinyan said.