Baku Reaffirms Readiness to Normalize Relations with Armenia

Azerbaijan's Deputy Foreign Minister Elnur Mammadov emphasized that despite Armenia's aggression against Azerbaijan, normalization with Armenia is still possible.

His statement came on Tuesday at an international conference titled "Major Obstacles to a Peace Agreement Between Azerbaijan and Armenia," organized by the Baku-based Center for Analysis of International Relations.

Mammadov expressed hope that Azerbaijan would soon achieve peace and progress in the Caucasus as Baku has sent a peace agreement proposal to Armenia. According to him, discussions regarding a peace agreement with Armenia have been held in the United States, Russia, and Kazakhstan.

Mammadov stated that the territorial claims embedded in Armenia's constitution remains the main hindrance to peace.

"Naming Karabakh, which is Azerbaijani territory, as part of Armenia is a fundamental aspect of their (Armenia’s) national ideology. However, Armenia has yet to define its borders. In addition to refusing to amend its constitution, Armenia distorts the realities. During discussions, the Armenian side fails to answer questions about Karabakh being a part of Azerbaijan because their legislation contains territorial claims against our country," the Deputy Minister noted.

Meanwhile, Armenia’s Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan recently stated that the two neighboring nations have a real chance to sign a peace agreement in the shortest possible time. According to Mirzoyan, Baku and Yerevan have already agreed on 13 out of the 16 articles of the peace agreement, with partial agreement on the remaining three.

Armenia and Azerbaijan had long been at odds over the latter’s Karabakh (Garabagh) region. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Armenia launched a full-scale war against Azerbaijan, which ended in a ceasefire in 1994. The war led to Armenia occupying 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territories, resulting in over 30,000 Azerbaijanis killed and one million others expelled from those lands in a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign conducted by Armenia.

On September 27, 2020, the decades-old conflict reignited after Armenia’s forces illegally deployed in occupied Azerbaijani lands shelled military positions and civilian settlements of Azerbaijan. During the ensuing counter-attack operations that lasted 44 days, Azerbaijani forces liberated over 300 settlements, including the cities of Jabrayil, Fuzuli, Zangilan, Gubadli, and Shusha, from Armenian occupation. The war ended on November 10, 2020, with a tripartite statement signed by Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia, under which Armenia returned the occupied Aghdam, Kalbajar, and Lachin districts to Azerbaijan.

Shortly after the 2020 war, Azerbaijani authorities expressed their readiness and determination to negotiate with Armenia to bring long-awaited peace to the region. In March 2022, Baku proposed five basic principles to Yerevan, including mutual recognition of territorial integrity and border delimitation.

Baku sees the territorial claim in Armenia’s Constitution for the Karabakh region, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, as the most significant obstacle to the peace deal. Azerbaijani authorities warn that without amendments to the present Constitution of Armenia, a new government in the future can annul the document by citing constitutional contradictions, as Armenia’s constitution supersedes any external agreement.

President Ilham Aliyev has also reaffirmed that without constitutional amendments in Armenia peace proposal would be considered “unrealistic and unacceptable”.

Last year, Armenian Prime Minister stated that the Declaration of Independence, which includes territorial claims against Azerbaijan by endorsing the unification of Azerbaijan’s Karabakh (Garabagh) region with Armenia, would keep Yerevan in a perpetual conflict with its neighbors, specifically Ankara and Baku.