Armenia hopes to sign peace deal with Azerbaijan in next four weeks

Armenia hopes to sign provisions of peace agreement with Azerbaijan in the next four weeks, the country's president told Reuters, which could ease tensions in the conflict-ridden South Caucasus. However, Baku signaled that the process is at a standstill, BTA quoted.

The two countries have been in peace talks since Azerbaijan reclaimed the former separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh in September 2023 after 30 years of de facto independence, prompting nearly all of its ethnic Armenian population of around 100,000 to flee to Armenia.

Negotiations have been strained, with each side accusing the other in recent weeks of being unwilling to sign a deal to end the more than three-decade conflict that began before both countries gained independence from Moscow.

In a speech on Friday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev accused Armenia of insincerity in its desire for an agreement and warned it to "stop these dangerous games", stressing that it was rearming for new fights.

Armenian President Vahagan Khachaturian, however, expressed hope that Azerbaijan would sign 16 of the agreement's articles before the COP29 climate change conference, which Baku hosts from November 11 to 22. "If it was just us, we would sign it right now, today,” he said, adding: "but hopefully we will get to that point sooner rather than later."

The Treaty Articles contain internationally recognized basic provisions for the establishment of diplomatic relations. They provide for a mechanism that allows the two sides to continue negotiations, among other provisions, according to a statement by the Armenian prime minister last month.

Khachaturian's powers are largely ceremonial, but he is an ally of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. He added that there are still several members who are in the process of negotiating with Azerbaijani officials.

Azerbaijan has said Armenia must amend its constitution to remove indirect references to Karabakh independence before signing a peace treaty. Earlier this year, Armenia withdrew from several Azerbaijani villages it had controlled since the early 1990s as part of the peace process.

Some of the hundreds of thousands of ethnic Azerbaijanis who fled their homes in and around Karabakh in the 1990s managed to return after Azerbaijan won the war.

Khachaturian added that talks with Turkey, a close ally of Azerbaijan, are progressing well and a proposal to open the border between the two countries to third-country nationals and those with diplomatic passports is being discussed. "This will be a signal that real diplomatic relations are becoming a reality," he said.

Ankara cut ties with Yerevan in 1993 to support Azerbaijan during its war with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, but diplomatic talks between the two countries have picked up in recent years.