Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Sunday proposed to Azerbaijan to sign a non-aggression pact in anticipation of a comprehensive peace treaty between the two countries.
The Nagorno-Karabakh region has long been a point of contention between Yerevan and Baku. In the 1990s and in 2020, Armenia and Azerbaijan tried to resolve the issue militarily. Last September, as a result of Azerbaijan’s lightning offensive, the region came under Baku’s control. At an event on the occasion of Armenian Army Day, Pashinyan said:
“We have presented Azerbaijan with a proposal for a mutual arms control mechanism and the signing of a non-aggression pact if the signature of a peace treaty encounters delays. We need to reconsider our strategic thinking in the security sphere and diversify our (international) relations in that sphere. We are set to purchase new and modern weapons, and over the last years the government has signed contracts on arms procurement worth billions of dollars.”
Azerbaijan denies its territorial claims against Armenia and rules out the possibility of a new conflict with its former Soviet republic.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Pashinyan have previously stated that a peace agreement could be signed by the end of last year. However, internationally mediated peace talks have so far failed to produce a breakthrough.
Last month, Armenia and Azerbaijan exchanged prisoners of war, a first step towards normalising relations. The European Union, the United States, and regional powers Turkey and Russia praised the move as a “breakthrough.”
The prisoner exchange has raised hopes for the resumption of face-to-face talks between Pashinyan and Aliyev. The pair had already met several times for talks on normalising relations mediated by EU chief Charles Michel. But that process has been on hold since October.
Aliyev sent troops into Karabakh on 19 September, and after just one day of fighting, the Armenians, who had controlled the region for three decades, surrendered and agreed to reintegration with Baku. But in December, Karabakh Armenian leader Samvel Shahramanyan said in Yerevan that his previous decree dissolving separatist institutions was invalid.
Almost the entire ethnic Armenian population – more than 100,000 people – fled Karabakh to Armenia after Baku’s takeover, fearing ethnic cleansing, sparking a refugee crisis.
