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.