The European Union on Friday congratulated the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan for finalizing a peace deal and urged them to sign the treaty soon.
The Caucasus neighbors said Thursday they had concluded talks aimed at resolving their decades-old conflict, with both sides agreeing on the text of a possible treaty.
European Council chief Antonio Costa wrote on X that it was “a decisive step towards the full normalisation of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the opening of the region.”
On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron also welcomed the announcement, writing on X that “there are now no remaining obstacles to the signing of a peace treaty.”
What have Baku and Yerevan said?
The Armenian Foreign Ministry in Yerevan announced on Thursday that the agreement is ready to be signed.
It has accepted Baku’s proposals on two previously unresolved articles of the draft and is ready to start talks with the Azerbaijani side on the time and place of the signing, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry in Baku also said that the negotiations were over, but noted that Armenia must amend its constitution and renounce all territorial claims against Azerbaijan.
Baku’s demand is for the removal from Armenia’s constitution of any reference to its declaration of independence, which is an assertion of its territorial claims over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Any such changes to the Armenian constitution would require a referendum.
Decades of conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh
Armenia and Azerbaijan fought two wars to control the Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan at the end of the Soviet Union and again in 2020, before Azerbaijan seized the entire region in a 24-hour offensive in September 2023.
Nagorno-Karabakh is legally part of Azerbaijan, but had maintained itself as a breakaway region in the South Caucasus since the 1990s with the help of the Armenian military and support from Russia.
In September 2023, more than 100,000 Armenians fled Nagorno-Karabakh to mainland Armenia, fearing repression. Yerevan accused Baku of expulsion and “ethnic cleansing.”
Both Armenia and Azerbaijan have repeatedly said that a comprehensive peace agreement to end their longstanding conflict is within reach. However, previous talks have failed to reach consensus on a draft accord.
Edited by: Kieran Burke
