A peace treaty is “just around the corner”. The heads of foreign affairs of Armenia and Azerbaijan held talks in the USA

2023-05-05 08:48:04

“The parties discussed complex issues, and achieved tangible progress. They, like me, believe that reaching an agreement is not far off,” US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said at a briefing after the final session of bilateral peace talks with the Armenian foreign ministers. Ararat Mirzayan and Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov.

In his opinion, dialogue is the only way to achieve peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan. According to Blinken, reaching this agreement was “historic” and “would have very positive consequences even beyond the borders of these two countries”, so the US will continue to help Baku and Yerevan “cross the finish line” on the issue of a peace agreement.

“A final agreement is within reach, and we are determined to continue helping our friends achieve it,” the US Secretary of State concluded.

• The territorial dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh has been going on since the late 1980s. The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region, populated mainly by ethnic Armenians, with the support of Armenia, announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijan SSR, and in September 1991 announced the creation of the “Nagorno-Karabakh Republic”.
• During the armed conflict of 1988–1994, 30,000 people died in the separatist region. Nagorno-Karabakh and several adjacent regions of Azerbaijan came under the actual control of the Armed Forces of Armenia. As a result, hundreds of thousands of people, mostly ethnic Azerbaijanis, became refugees and forced migrants.
• After another escalation of the situation at the end of September 2020, Azerbaijan returned to its control the areas around Nagorno-Karabakh and took the ancient and symbolically significant city of Shusha (Shushi in Armenian). The day after the capture of Shusha, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a peace agreement to end the war in the region.
• According to the terms of the treaty, the territories where the troops were stationed at the time of signing the document are secured for Armenia and Azerbaijan. A Russian peacekeeping mission is located along the line of contact.
• After the actual disintegration of the OSCE Minsk Group on the Karabakh settlement, its three former co-chairs — the United States, Russia and France — are fighting for the title of the main mediator in the conflict settlement. On May 2, the Kremlin categorically stated that the tripartite agreements between Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia remain the only “road map” to peace.