An agreement is ready to be signed, but Azerbaijan has a few last requirements.
Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to the terms of a long-awaited peace treaty Thursday that could end a decades-long conflict that began with the fall of the Soviet Union.
After Armenia accepted the two remaining elements of a peace deal from Azerbaijan, the latter laid out several formal requirements that Armenia must complete before the deal can be signed.
“As the next step, Azerbaijan expects that Armenia will amend its Constitution and … eliminate claims against the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Republic of Azerbaijan,” said Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov.
Bayramov added that in order to seal the deal, Armenia must also dissolve the Minsk Group, a 1992 format created under the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and co-headed by the U.S., Russia and France to resolve a conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh border region between the two countries.
Meeting these demands could take some time, given that amending the constitution requires that a referendum be held. The Armenian PM called for a referendum on a new constitution in February.
Still, observers hailed the agreement as representing significant progress toward peace.
“This is an unprecedented breakthrough in what was deadlocked diplomacy,” said Richard Giragosian, director of the Regional Studies Center, an independent think tank based in Armenia.
Given how long it will take to meet Azerbaijan’s final demands, they should not be prerequisites for signing the peace treaty but rather a matter for further discussion, Giragosian added. “Both sides [should] sign the peace treaty and continue talks,” he said, though noted that skepticism remained a barrier.
“There is a degree of wariness in Armenia that this may be too good to be true. There are expectations that Azerbaijan may actually continue to demand more concessions.”
The two countries have yet to negotiate when and where the peace deal will be signed. Armenia proposed issuing a joint statement following the agreement of terms but Baku declined, Armenia’s Foreign Ministry said.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought a series of conflicts in recent years, with an Azerbaijani offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh last September forcing the region’s 100,000 residents to flee.