Armenian PM says Yerevan has political will to sign peace deal with Azerbaijan

The architecture and principles of the peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan have been agreed upon, Yerevan has the political will to sign the document.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan made the remarks in an interview with The Daily Telegraph on February 11.

In the past three years, Armenia suffered defeat in the 2020 Second Karabakh War with Azerbaijan, the humiliating loss in September 2023 of the Armenian-backed, self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh republic, and effective abandonment by Russia, its principal military ally.

Since then, Pashinyan’s willingness to make concessions in pursuit of peace, including recognising Azerbaijan’s sovereignty over Karabakh, has caused public anger at home and a wave of protests he claims were designed to oust him from power.

Many in Yerevan fear that Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s strong-man president, is laying the pretext for a third offensive – this time to conquer land inside Armenia proper.

“By the end of October 2023, the architecture and principles for a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan have been agreed upon. And at the end of last year, it seemed to us that we were very close, finally, to a final text of agreement,” Pashinyan said.