Peace agreement is currently not beneficial for Azerbaijan – Ara Poghosyan

Judging by the latest statements, representatives of Armenia will not attend COP29, political scientist Ara Poghosyan told Alpha News.

“Judging by the statements coming from Armenia, or rather their absence, and the latest statement by the Azerbaijani authorities, especially Ilham Aliyev, I believe representatives of Armenia will not attend COP29. I think there are many problems, one of which is that, according to various rumors, the Armenian authorities hoped that in exchange for participation it would be possible to solve the problem of returning a certain number of prisoners, but Azerbaijan was against it. I assumed that this would be impossible since Azerbaijan was against it from the very beginning. Therefore, in my opinion, the Armenian delegation will not participate in the event,” Poghosyan said.

When asked what prevented official Yerevan from reaching respective agreements during this time, the political scientist noted:

“The problems are very different. They are due to both objective and subjective reasons, depending on the negotiating position of the Armenian authorities: both political speech and behavior, as well as the available capital. Unfortunately, the Armenian authorities have shown weakness in relations with Azerbaijan, have demonstrated that they do not have any red lines, that their red lines do not exist at all, and they will do anything to retain their power, nothing more. In this regard, of course, it would be difficult to come to an agreement with Baku. But it is worth noting that there was another issue that had dropped out of the agenda, such as the signing of a peace deal. This has been repeatedly discussed on Western platforms, and before COP29, Armenia from time to time hinted that there might be some kind of text of a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan. But even these plans were doomed to failure. The Azerbaijani authorities want to go further in their demands, so the peace agreement is currently not beneficial for them.”