Baku States Preconditions: Constitution Change, Enclaves

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, through its press service head Aykhan Hajizadeh, has reiterated Baku's preconditions regarding the normalization of relations with Armenia and regional processes. Hajizadeh's comments summarize Azerbaijan's key demands, linking the signing of a peace treaty to a change in the Armenian Constitution and keeping the issue of enclaves on the agenda.

Addressing discussions about the possible location for signing the peace treaty with Armenia, Hajizadeh emphasized that this is a secondary issue. According to him, the signing location can be discussed "only after all conditions are met." Baku considers a change to Armenia's Constitution as such a key and cornerstone condition. "The key condition from Azerbaijan's side for signing the peace treaty is making changes to Armenia's Constitution, which 'upholds territorial claims against Azerbaijan'," the MFA spokesman stated. He also added that this condition, according to them, "is indirectly mentioned in the joint Declaration signed by the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia in the presence of Trump."

Hajizadeh reaffirmed that the issue of returning the so-called four Azerbaijani enclaves also remains one of Baku's foreign policy priorities. "The return of the three villages of the Gazakh region and the village of Karki in Nakhchivan to Azerbaijan has always been a priority issue," he said. The Azerbaijani MFA representative clarified that this issue should find its solution within the framework of the border delimitation commissions operating between the two countries.

In addition to bilateral relations, Hajizadeh also touched upon the "3+3" regional cooperation format (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia – Russia, Iran, Turkey). He stated that the next meeting should be held in Azerbaijan. At the same time, he revealed certain disagreements with Armenia on this matter. "During the last meeting in Istanbul in October of last year, we tried to include a provision in the final document that the respective meetings would be organized alternately by Azerbaijan and Armenia, but Armenia was against it," noted Hajizadeh.