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Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan reiterated on Monday readiness to swiftly sign the peace treaty with Azerbaijan.
Earlier in March, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to the terms of the peace treaty. Armenia announced readiness to sign the peace agreement as soon as possible, but Azerbaijan has been stalling the process ever since.
Speaking at the Yerevan Dialogue 2025 forum, Pashinyan presented the latest developments in the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process.
He said that Armenia has been consistently reaffirming readiness to sign the peace agreement.
“Azerbaijan is linking the signing of the agreement with two issues: The first is the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group bodies. The OSCE Minsk Group was created as a platform for talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan. I have to say that the dissolution of this body is acceptable for us, and we are ready to move forward, but on the other hand we want to make sure that we and Azerbaijan have a similar perception of the situation, we want to make sure that Azerbaijan doesn’t intend to close the conflict situation in its territory and export it to Armenia’s territory,” the PM said.
Pashinyan warned that Azerbaijan has been falsely referring to over 60% of the sovereign territory of Armenia as “Western Azerbaijan.”
“We’ve numerously said that there can’t be “Western Azerbaijan” in the sovereign territory of Armenia. We propose to sign the peace agreement and simultaneously apply to the OSCE to dissolve the Minsk Group bodies. I find this to be a constructive proposal, to have two documents on the table and sign them at the same time in the same place,” Pashinyan said.
The second issue raised by Azerbaijan pertains to Armenian constitutional provisions.
“Overall, it is obvious that the parties shall not have any territorial claims against each other, and this is a highly important precondition for peace,” Pashinyan said.
Citing the Constitutional Court’s approval of the 2024 Armenia-Azerbaijan border delimitation regulation, which is based on the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1991, Pashinyan reiterated that Armenia doesn’t have any territorial claims against any country.
Explaining the Alma-Ata Declaration signed by 11 Soviet republics, Pashinyan said it states that “the Soviet Union ceases to exist and the signatory parties become independent states, recognize each other’s territorial integrity and inviolability of borders, sovereignty and so on. Thus, the Constitutional Court of Armenia has ruled that the Alma-Ata Declaration is in full conformity with the Constitution of Armenia, which means that the Armenian Constitution doesn’t contain any territorial claims against any neighbor, because that declaration means that the territories of Armenia and Azerbaijan are identical to the territories of the Soviet Armenia and Soviet Azerbaijan.”
He said one of the agreed-upon terms of the would-be peace treaty pertains to the parties recognizing each other’s borders (former administrative borders of Soviet Union become international borders respectively).
Another term of the treaty pertains to mutual recognition of territorial integrity and obligation to not make territorial claims against each other in the future. Another provision stipulates that the parties cannot refer to their domestic legislation for failure to implement the terms of the treaty.
He said the peace treaty would be sent to the Armenian Constitutional Court for validation after its signature under standard procedure. If, hypothetically, the high court rules the document as contradicting the constitution, Pashinyan said he would initiate constitutional amendments because the chance for peace must not be missed.
“And if the constitutional court rules the document to be in conformity with the Armenian Constitution, in that case there will be no obstruction to ratify it in parliament, after which it will gain superior legal force in Armenia,” Pashinyan said.