Blinken: Azerbaijan and Armenia are close to peace

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated recently at the sidelines of the NATO Summit: “Over the last year, year and a half, Armenia and Azerbaijan have done very important work toward negotiating and concluding a peace agreement—one that is durable, one that is dignified and one that would open extraordinary possibilities for both countries, the region that they share and for their relationship with the United States.”

He added: “Today is an opportunity to take stock in the progress that has been made, what remains.  But based on the engagements that we have had, including in recent weeks, I believe both countries are very close to being able to reach a final agreement, one that the United States will strongly support.”

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and his Armenian counterpart met in Washington, DC with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the sidelines of the NATO Summit.   The ministers agreed to continue to work diligently to finalizing the peace agreement, which will bring to an end the conflict between both countries.   Both sides expressed their gratitude to Secretary Blinken for his role in facilitating dialogue between both countries.

Spokesman for the US State Department Matthew Miller also expressed his satisfaction with the meeting and stressed: “The Secretary also emphasized the importance of peace in promoting regional connectivity, which would benefit the entire South Caucuses region.”    Bayramov also “reiterated Azerbaijan’s commitment to the peace process” in an X post following the meeting.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said that within a few months Azerbaijan and Armenia can lay the basic principles for a peace treaty, but a peace agreement can only be signed when Armenia changes its constitution “because it contains territorial claims against Azerbaijan.”   The Azerbaijani President believes that it is of pivotal importance to ending the conflict permanently that Armenia renounces all of its claims over Azerbaijani territory, implying that if the constitution is not changed, Armenia can always renege the peace agreement and wage conflict against Azerbaijan at a future date.  

Last February, Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan did call for a new constitution.  However, his people have not taken kindly to the request they change their constitution, which presently affirms: “the December 1, 1989 declaration by the Supreme Council of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic that calls for unification of the Armenian SSR and Nagorno-Karabakh.”  

For this reason, Farid Shafiyev, Chair of the Baku-based Centre of Analysis of International Relations (AIR), has suggested that a commitment to amend the constitution within a year of signing, if included in an agreement, could also be acceptable but that timeframe could be too short.

He noted that Pashinyan still needs to engage the public further in informed discussion regarding the necessity and benefits of peace for that to happen.  Nevertheless, it should be noted that last May Armenia returned four villages to Azerbaijan that it occupied during the First Karabakh War, so perhaps one day it will happen that Armenia will change their constitution as well.  When there is a will, there is always a way forward.