Mirzoyan expressed cautious optimism that they will also be agreed upon in the near future and the text of the treaty will be ready for signing. The minister, however, did not specify which particular points the negotiations are currently focused on.
“Now we have an understanding that there are another one or two wordings that we will continue working on. This is also a normal negotiation process. I would express cautious optimism that in the near future we will also be able to reach an agreement on those one or two wordings, after which the treaty will be ready for signing,” Mirzoyan said.
Arayik Harutiunian, chief of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s staff, similarly struck an optimistic note in parliament yesterday when he spoke about the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process, stating that he saw an opportunity to resolve the sticking points in the draft peace treaty.
Earlier, Pashinian advocated for signing a peace treaty with Baku based on the points that both sides have already agreed upon, indicating that this constitutes about 80 percent of the draft. He noted that the sides could work on the remaining issues later. Baku, however, rejected this initiative.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov also spoke of “serious progress” in the negotiation process with Armenia on Thursday as he had a phone call with Stephen Doughty, Minister of State for Europe, North America and Overseas Territories of the United Kingdom.
However, as quoted by Azerbaijani media, the top Azerbaijani diplomat repeated Baku’s claim that Armenia’s current Constitution contains territorial claims against Azerbaijan.
Armenia denies that the reference in the preamble of its Constitution to the 1990 Declaration of Independence that, in turn, cites a 1989 unification act adopted by the legislative bodies of Soviet Armenia and the then Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast amounts to territorial claims against Azerbaijan.
The only legal way to scrap the preamble is to enact a new constitution. Pashinian and his political team have indicated that they will try to do that in 2027. They have said at the same time that the preamble has no legal impact on the current Armenian government’s recognition of Azerbaijani sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Optimism regarding the possibility of Armenia and Azerbaijan signing a peace treaty in the near future grew after Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met in Kazan on the sidelines of the BRICS summit hosted by Russia earlier this month.
Few details of the October 24 talks were officially reported, but a source revealed to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that both Pashinian and Mirzoyan informed their political allies after the Kazan meeting that some progress had been made on the points of the draft treaty over which the sides continue to have differences.
The Armenian foreign minister also addressed the border demarcation process between Armenia and Azerbaijan, stating that the sides will soon officially notify each other about the entry into force of the regulations for joint activities of Armenian and Azerbaijani government commissions dealing with the border delimitation and demarcation process.
Following the Kazan meeting between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, the presidents of both countries ratified those regulations.
Mirzoyan expressed hope that the border demarcation process will continue.
Armenia and Azerbaijan engaged in fence-mending talks following a deadly war in 2020 over Nagorno-Karabakh, during which Baku regained control of much of the breakaway region. Azerbaijan completed its takeover of the region in 2023 when more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians fled hostilities and resettled in Armenia.
The United States and other international partners of Armenia and Azerbaijan have repeatedly expressed their support for a peace treaty between the two South Caucasus nations, encouraging them to finalize it already this year.