Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said his country is ready to open up communication with Armenia, during a meeting with visiting OSCE Chairperson and Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde on March 14. “We already started the process of negotiations on the opening of communications between Armenia and Azerbaijan. That was part of the statement which was signed on Nov. 10. Negotiations already had several rounds, different levels and I think that this particular issue can be a starting point for completely turning the page of war and leaving it to the history,” Aliyev was quoted on the presidential website.
Aliyev referenced the ceasefire brokered by Russian President Vladimir Putin last November ending the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Putin did that in the context of Russia being a member of the OSCE, along with the United States and France, to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Pointing to the fact that opening communications would benefit the broader region as well, Aliyev said, “And it can bring many other areas of potential cooperation,” declaring that the four months that have elapsed since the war “already demonstrate the will of both sides to turn the page and to concentrate on the future.”
