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Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has issued a statement on the occasion of the first anniversary of the signing of the peace declaration and the initialling of the peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Washington.
The statement published by the Prime Minister’s Office reads as follows:
“Dear people, dear citizens of the Republic of Armenia,
One year ago on this day, on August 8, 2025, as a result of the trilateral meeting convened at the initiative and with the participation of President Donald Trump in Washington, the capital of the United States, at the White House, peace was established between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
We now call the August 8 meeting the Peace Summit, and the joint declaration adopted there by me and the President of Azerbaijan, which was also signed by the US President as a witness, the Peace Declaration.
These names fully express the result that August 8, 2025 brought. The peace established between Armenia and Azerbaijan is visible and tangible to everyone.
In the parliamentary elections of June 7, 2026, the citizens of Armenia not only gave a vote of confidence to peace, but also upheld the peace. This, of course, does not mean that we have reached the final destination on the path to implementing the peace agenda.
The ‘Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and Interstate Relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan,’ initialled on August 8, 2025, in Washington, in the presence of the three leaders, by the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, is still awaiting its signing and ratification; the delimitation between Armenia and Azerbaijan still has to take place; and the fact that our compatriots are being held in captivity in Azerbaijan deeply concerns and troubles us all.
But it is obvious that August 8, 2025 is a dividing line, and we can divide the history of the Republic of Armenia into before and after it. Before August 8, 2025, our state was at an impasse, while after August 8, 2025, boundless prospects have opened up before us, whether or not we make use of them depending on our collective will, our knowledge, and our ability to learn about the world and our history.
This is precisely the greatest political and socio-psychological result of the Washington Peace Summit: the steering wheel of our history has once again appeared in our hands. This does not mean that the road is perfect and without dangers; it means that our decisions are the primary factor determining our future destiny, and this is a historic turning point.
The preceding period and the results of the National Assembly elections have come to convince us that we can, that we are capable, as a state and as a people, of taking ownership of our destiny, and for this I want to thank all of you and each of you, dear citizens of the Republic of Armenia.
One of the most important results of the Washington Peace Summit is the ‘Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity’ (TRIPP) project, which will not only put an end to Armenia’s blockade in the very near future and not only become the backbone of the economy of Armenia and the region, but will also help Armenia and Azerbaijan begin to perceive each other not as an obstacle, but as a route, as a neighbor. In the near future, we will begin the practical implementation of the TRIPP project, and this will become a major regional and international event.
Dear people, dear citizens of the Republic of Armenia,
The chapter of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan is closed, peace has been established, and it is right here before your eyes; it is your life and your everyday reality. Establishing any peace is not easy; establishing our peace was not easy either. But destroying and nullifying any peace is extremely easy, and it can be done very quickly, and the question is whether, in such a case, it will be possible to establish peace again after 35 years.
Today, many people—some deliberately, others unintentionally—are acting according to a logic aimed at destroying peace, and this activity is sometimes concealed under the smokescreen of eloquent or ‘patriotic’ rhetoric. I want to say this without equivocation: in order to make peace irreversible, it is necessary to stop continuing the discourse about the right of ‘Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh to return’ and the ‘right of Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan to return,’ as well as, in Azerbaijan, the discourse about ‘Western Azerbaijan and right of Western Azerbaijanis to return.’
This is an issue that needs to be addressed both in Armenia and in Azerbaijan, for the sake of the right of our generations to peaceful coexistence. This is the right that we must make tangible and pursue today, and we must be able to overcome any discourse that contradicts it.
I thank President Trump for his undeniable efforts in establishing this peace.
I congratulate the people of Armenia on the occasion of August 8.
I congratulate the people of Azerbaijan on the occasion of August 8.
At last, we have a day that brings us peace rather than inflaming us.
And may all the victims of the conflict rest in peace.
Never again.
Long live peace.”