Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has reaffirmed his country’s readiness to start negotiations on a peace agreement with Armenia, calling on Yerevan to choose between cooperation and territorial claims, TASS reports.

“As the [Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh)] conflict is over, Azerbaijan has already announced its readiness to embark upon the border delimitation and demarcation between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and to start negotiations on peace agreement with Armenia, based on mutual recognition of sovereignty and territorial integrity of each other. Such an agreement would turn our region into the region of peace and cooperation. However, we have not yet seen any positive reaction from Armenia regarding our proposal,” Aliyev said Thursday in his address at the 76th session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

According to him, transport projects can become one of the spheres serving peace and cooperation. The Azerbaijani president noted that in this context, “the Zangazur [i.e., Zangezur] corridor connecting mainland Azerbaijan with its inseparable part Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic,” will create new opportunities for the region. 

Aliyev stressed that “Azerbaijan has created a new reality in the Southern Caucasus region which has to be taken into account by all.” According to him, “Armenia has to make a choice between regional cooperation and illegal and baseless territorial claims against its neighbors.”