Direct bilateral talks between our two countries to finalize a peace deal have entered a crucial final stage, and I am here to reiterate Azerbaijan's strong commitment to achieve durable, credible and irreversible peace with Armenia.

Axar.az presents to your attention the interview given by the President's Special Representative, Elchin Amirbayov, to the Faro di Roma media outlet. Note: Translated from Italian to English.

Question: Your Excellency, after the conclusion of your mandate to the Holy See as the first Ambassador of Azerbaijan, how do you feel about this experience today and what is the purpose of your visit today?

Answer: Firstly, it's always a pleasure to be back to the Vatican City as this revives unique and pleasant memories related to the beginning of what has today become a vibrant, solid and efficient cooperation and interaction between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Holy See.

Almost twenty years since my first visit to the Vatican, it's gratifying to acknowledge significant progress and steady evolution in our bilateral relations. It gives me a particular pleasure to contemplate our beautiful tricolour waving from the premises of the Embassy of Azerbaijan to the Holy See at the historical via della Conciliazione next to the Vatican. And we are glad that since December 2022 we have a dedicated Ambassador who is accredited to the Holy See with residence in Rome.

As to the purpose of this visit, it is a part of the ongoing active political dialog between our States on the issues of mutual interest, including on the matters related to the ongoing peace process between Azerbaijan and Armenia. We are grateful to the Holy See for its interest to this topic and for the support of the peace agenda put forward by Azerbaijan to normalize relations with our Armenian neighbors.

As you may know, direct bilateral talks between our two countries to finalize a peace deal have entered a crucial final stage, and I am here to reiterate Azerbaijan's strong commitment to achieve durable, credible and irreversible peace with Armenia. To reach this goal, it is our solemn duty to make sure that the future peace deal makes completely impossible, even theoretically, any return to territorial claims, aggression or military conflict.

Azerbaijan has suffered enough from this scourge and would like to exclude the repetition of this scenario in the future. For that, Armenia needs to urgently address the obvious territorial claim embedded in its current Constitution with regard to part of a sovereign territory of Azerbaijan. By denying the relevance of this major obstacle to peace and opting for simplistic and non-viable shortcuts to sign a half-baked text at any cost, Armenia seems to ignore an elephant in the living room and tries to sweep under the carpet the raison d'etre, underlying reason of decades long rivalry and confrontation between our countries. So, the ball is today in the Armenian court and we do hope that the historic opportunity to turn the tragic page in our relations will not be wasted.