Armenian official voices ‘once-in-a-lifetime opportunity’ to create peace

Armenia is trying to change the dynamic of the region of the South Caucasus, Vice Speaker of Parliament Ruben Rubinyan said at the Yerevan Dialogue 2025 forum.

“It's not a secret that Armenia has been in a partial blockade ever since it gained its independence, basically. And we are trying to change the dynamic of the region of the South Caucasus, which will itself change the dynamic in the wider European region, and also the dynamics in Central Asia, Middle East,” he said.

Rubinyan, who is also Armenia's special representative for normalization with Turkey, presented Armenia’s stance.

“Right now, we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create peace, lasting peace in the South Caucasus. We have a rare situation where neither Azerbaijan nor Armenia have to concede anything,” Rubinyan said, adding “we have a text of a peace treaty ready, negotiations have been finalized and closed.”

“And we have a historic opportunity to sign and ratify this peace treaty.”

“We have a historic opportunity to unblock all communications in the region of the South Caucasus, which means all communications between Azerbaijan and Armenia. And in a separate track, all communications between Armenia and Turkey. And this will change the whole dynamic in the South Caucasus, the whole security architecture. And since we are discussing the theme of our panel is how can small countries navigate in these turbulent times, well, this is how small countries can navigate. The number one source of uncertainty for small countries, or even medium-sized countries in the modern world where the global order is collapsing, is conflict. You eliminate conflict, you eliminate uncertainty. You unblock communications, you eliminate uncertainty. And you also eliminate the risk of new conflicts. So, this is our strategy. It's difficult, I have to admit. It's difficult also because our potential partners are not as constructive as we would like them to be. But we want to show on our own example that peace is possible. And we are going to do everything in our force to do this,” he said.