On April 9, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated that building trust with Armenia will require “small steps,” while reaffirming Baku’s key demands regarding Armenia’s recognition of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and the adoption of a new constitution.
Speaking at the “Towards a New World Order” international forum, Aliyev emphasized that the signing of a peace treaty depends on Armenia meeting these conditions. Aliyev said that Georgia recently conveyed proposals about trust building initiatives between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which Baku has endorsed.
“We have given a positive response and we are waiting for the Armenian side’s stance. If everything is successful then some small steps could be made,” the Azerbaijani president said.
However, he cautioned against expectations of immediate normalization.
“Realistically speaking, this does not mean that we will become friends with Armenia at once. It is still too early to speak of full economic integration,” he noted. “
At the same time, Aliyev warned that Armenia risks a new military confrontation with Azerbaijan unless it enacts a new constitution, one that reflects Baku’s demands.
“Until a peace treaty is signed and Armenia completely renounces all territorial claims against Azerbaijan, which are still present in its constitution, and demonstrates sincerity in its behavior towards normalizing relations with Azerbaijan, the risk of a new military confrontation will always persist,” he said.
Aliyev has repeatedly made the signing of the treaty conditional on a change to the current Armenian constitution, specifically demanding the removal of a reference to Armenia’s 1990 Declaration of Independence contained in the constitution’s preamble.
The declaration, in turn, cites a 1989 unification act adopted by the legislative bodies of Soviet Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).
