Armenia and Azerbaijan on Thursday, the 13th of March, agreed on the terms of a long-awaited peace deal that could end decades of conflict that began with the collapse of the Soviet Union, according to Politico and Reuters.
Armenia’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday that its side had finalised a peace agreement with Azerbaijan.
“The peace treaty is ready for signing. The Republic of Armenia is ready to start consultations with the Republic of Azerbaijan on the date and place of signing the agreement.”
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in a statement: “We note with satisfaction that the negotiations on the draft text of the Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and Interstate Relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia have been completed.”
However, Azerbaijan has put forward several formal requirements that Armenia must fulfil before the agreement can be signed.
“As a next step, Azerbaijan expects Armenia to amend its constitution and … remove its claims to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Republic of Azerbaijan,” said Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bajramov.
Bajramov added that in order to conclude the deal, Armenia must also disband the Minsk Group, a 1992 format set up within the framework of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and co-headed by the US, Russia and France to resolve the conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh border region between the two countries.
Meeting these demands could take some time, given that amending the constitution requires a referendum. The Armenian Prime Minister has called for a referendum on the new constitution in February.
HOWEVER, OBSERVERS WELCOMED THE AGREEMENT AS AN IMPORTANT STEP TOWARDS PEACE.
“This is an unprecedented breakthrough in a diplomacy that had been deadlocked”, said Richard Giragosian, Director of the Regional Studies Center, an independent think tank based in Armenia.
As Azerbaijan’s final demands will take longer to meet, they should not delay a peace agreement but should instead be negotiated at a later date, Giragosian said. “Both sides [should] sign the peace agreement and continue negotiations,” he said, although he noted that scepticism remains an obstacle.
“There is a certain wariness in Armenia that this might be too good to be true. There is concern that Azerbaijan may continue to demand even more concessions.”
The two countries have yet to agree on when and where the peace deal will be signed. Armenia proposed issuing a joint statement after the terms were agreed, but Baku refused, the Armenian foreign ministry said
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been involved in several conflicts in recent years, with an Azerbaijani offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh last September forcing 100 000 people in the region to flee.
The Russian state news agency TASS quoted Prime Minister Nikolai Pashinyan as telling reporters that the agreement would prevent the deployment of third-country personnel along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.
This provision would most likely apply to the European Union’s civilian monitoring mission, which has been criticised by Baku, as well as to Russian border guards who monitor part of the Armenian border.