Armenian and Azerbaijani authorities announced on Thursday that they have agreed on the wording of a peace accord, a major step toward ending almost four decades of conflict between the two countries. This came as part of a long and frequently bumpy peace process.
The clashes trace back to the late 1980s, when Nagorno-Karabakh, where ethnic Armenians are a majority, separated from Azerbaijan with Armenian backing. The two former Soviet republics have clashed with each other in a number of conflicts since.
Armenia’s Foreign Ministry said that the draft peace treaty has been ready, adding, “The peace agreement is ready to be signed. The Republic of Armenia stands prepared to begin negotiations with the Republic of Azerbaijan regarding the timing and location of the signing of the agreement.”
Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry also conveyed similar sentiments of happiness over the readiness of the negotiations on the draft agreement on peace and establishing interstate relations.
Despite this breakthrough, uncertainty clouds the signing timeline of the agreement. Azerbaijan has declared that the signing of any accord is conditional upon amendments to Armenia’s constitution, which it contends implicitly lays territorial claims. Though such claims are denied by Armenia, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has also said that a constitutional change is required and has called for a referendum, though no timeline has been declared.
The conflict has led to widespread human displacement, including mass expulsions of Azerbaijani Muslims from Armenia and Armenian Christians from Azerbaijan at the start of hostilities. The conflict erupted again in September 2023, when Karabakh was recaptured by Azerbaijan, leading to an exodus of nearly all of the region’s 100,000 Armenians to Armenia.
Both nations have been eager to sign a treaty ending the long war, but everything has been proceeding slowly and tensions remain tense. Their shared border, which is 1,000 km (621 miles) long, remains closed and highly militarized.
In January, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev accused Armenia of having presented a “fascist” threat, comments for which Armenia’s leadership interpreted as a potential grounds for renewed violence. The world, in turn, watches the further development of this fragile peace process closely.
