BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 8. The most important development in the Azerbaijan-Armenia peace process over the past year was the meeting in the White House and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev's statement right afterward that he considers Azerbaijan and Armenia now to be living in a state of peace.
U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan (2010-2012), Matthew Bryza, made the remark in an exclusive interview with Trend.
He said that following President Ilham Aliyev's statement, a number of important steps were taken within the framework of the peace process.
"Azerbaijan and Armenia are living in a state of peace that is growing stronger, thanks to Azerbaijan facilitating the shipment of wheat, for example, to Armenia, as well as energy, natural gas, and other commodities, whereas Armenia has also allowed reverse transportation along the corridor linking Türkiye to Nakhchivan, Armenia, and the rest of Azerbaijan," Bryza noted.
According to him, in general, the discussions between the leaderships of both countries have been productive.
Bryza pointed out that a second big development, of course, was a victory in Armenia's parliamentary election by Nikol Pashinyan's political organization.
According to the former ambassador, as President Ilham Aliyev and other senior Azerbaijani officials have said, despite the fact that there's no peace treaty signed yet by the national leaders of both countries, both countries continue to live and to strengthen their state of peace between each other.
"So I think this ongoing process is important," Bryza stressed.
He considers the establishment of various transport and communication links between Azerbaijan and Armenia as particularly important within the framework of this process.
"This process, I mean, is one that builds the transportation interconnections between Azerbaijan and Armenia, including data links, and roads, railroads, and energy connections," Bryza explained.
According to him, all of these increases in the interconnectivity of Azerbaijan and Armenia, and then also with Türkiye, strengthen the state of peace that already exists between the two countries.
Bryza also touched upon the issue of possible amendments to the Armenian Constitution, as requested by Azerbaijan.
"The future of a possible amendment to Armenia's constitution as Azerbaijan seeks, it remains to be seen what's going to happen with that," he noted.
As the former ambassador noted, the main thing is that Azerbaijan and Armenia work together with each other and with their neighbors, including in Central Asia and in Türkiye, to advance investments in interconnectivity between the countries and to establish patterns of trade that bind the countries together more and more strongly.
"Of course, together with the United States playing a leading role in facilitating that process, especially through investments," Bryza added.
