Armenia on Tuesday pushed Azerbaijan to sign a peace treaty, with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan saying he was ready to simultaneously agree to one of Baku's key demands to get the deal finalized.
The two ex-Soviet republics last month agreed the text of a long-awaited peace deal aimed at resolving decades of conflict. But Azerbaijan has outlined a host of demands, including Armenian constitutional changes, before it will sign the document.
Pashinyan on Tuesday proposed simultaneously signing the peace agreement with a declaration on one of Baku's other requirements - the formal dismantling of the Minsk Group, a defunct mediation format set up in 1991 under the aegis of the OSCE and co-chaired by France, Russia and the United States.
"That is, to place the peace agreement and the joint statement on the dissolution of the Minsk Group structures on the table, and sign both in the same place and at the same time," Pashinyan said in an address to parliament in Yerevan.
Pashinyan also suggested creating a joint Armenian-Azerbaijani "mechanism to investigate border incidents, including ceasefire violations".
"There is no basis for war... There will be no war, there will be peace," he said.
Armenia has said it is ready to sign the deal, but Baku wants Yerevan to change its constitution to remove references that imply territorial claims over Karabakh first.
Pashinyan says that will require a referendum in 2027, and is pushing to sign the deal earlier.
Over the last 40 years, Baku and Yerevan fought two wars for control of Karabakh, an Armenian-populated mountainous region internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.
Baku seized the entire area in a 24-hour offensive in September 2023, triggering 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee.
The signing of a deal to normalize ties would mark a major breakthrough in a region where Russia, the European Union, the United States and Turkey are all jostling for influence.
With AFP
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