On June 4, Secretary of the Armenian Security Council Armen Grigoryan said that Armenia and Azerbaijan are conducting intensive negotiations; if this course is maintained, it is possible to conclude a peace agreement at the end of the year.

"We are determined to find solutions and, within the framework of these decisions, advance the peace agenda and conclude a peace agreement," the official said. "Yerevan positively assesses the five-sided meeting of leaders held on June 1 in Chisinau on the sidelines of the second summit of the European Political Community," Grigoryan noted.

"This is a good opportunity to advance the peace agenda. The support of the international community for this agenda is very important," the head of the Armenian Security Council stressed.

According to him, on the issue of unblocking transport communications, on which Yerevan and Baku have made significant progress on the Moscow negotiating platform, there is one important thing that is clear to all involved partners: "The borders will be under the control of the Armenian side, that is, when unblocking in the case of Armenia, all border procedures will be carried out only by Armenian services."

Moreover, Grigoryan stated that he would travel to Minsk this week to attend a meeting with colleagues from the Collective Security Treaty Organization. 

However, before the visit to the Belarusian capital, the administrative head of the Armenian Security Council again could not resist criticizing the regional collective security system. "Armenia's participation in the CSTO creates certain problems but does not limit cooperation with different countries. We are intensively working with Western partners and will continue this work," Grigoryan added.

According to him, it would be difficult to find an example of CSTO assistance to Armenia starting from 2020. "Since 2020, there have been three large-scale attacks by Azerbaijan against Armenia, in which the CSTO did not provide Armenia with any assistance," he said. Answering the question of whether the issue of supplying weapons to Armenia was discussed with partners from Russia last month, Grigoryan specified that no.

Response from Azerbaijan

On the same day, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry reported that on June 4, 2023, the Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia, Armen Grigoryan, during his interview on Public Television, once again distorted the essence of issues in several directions, evading the obligations assumed by Armenia, both among the international community and Armenia Attempts to create confusion in the society are unacceptable.

"First of all, regarding the claim based on the delimitation process, let us note that according to the declarations of both the Prague and Sochi meetings, the delimitation is planned to be carried out based on mutual recognition of territorial integrity and sovereignty. In general, in these statements, the reference to the UN charter and Alma-Ata declaration was given in the context of the mentioned principles. It is well known to the Armenian side that there was no agreement on the implementation of delimitation based on any map in this and another meeting," it added.

"Armenia's accusation against Azerbaijan on aggression towards Armenia, which held the territories of Azerbaijan under the occupation for nearly 30 years, is still occupying eight villages of Azerbaijan, has not completely withdrawn its forces from the territory of Azerbaijan despite the written and verbal agreements reached, delay to return of eight villages to Azerbaijan under various pretexts, as well as the continuation of military provocations, is completely unfounded," the report said.

"Everyone remembers Armen Grigoryan, who declared that the Armenian armed forces would be withdrawn from the territory of Azerbaijan in September of last year, contrary to the provisions of the tripartite declaration, and confirmed how they continue their acts of aggression against Azerbaijan with this declaration. In this context, Armenia's populist declaration that it is committed to the peace process does not fit into any logic," the information emphasized.

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