BAKU: Azerbaijan and Armenia said on Thursday that they had wrapped up talks aimed at resolving the Caucasus neighbours’ decades-long conflict, with both sides agreeing on the text of a possible treaty.

A deal to normalise ties would be a major breakthrough in a region where Russia, the European Union, the United States and Turkey all jostle for influence.

Baku and Yerevan fought two wars for control of Azerbaijan’s Armenian-populated region of Karabakh, at the end of the Soviet Union and again in 2020, before Azerbaijan seized the entire area in a 24-hour offensive in September 2023.

Nearly all ethnic Armenians — more than 100,000 people — fled Karabakh after its takeover by Baku.

Both countries have repeatedly said a comprehensive peace deal to end their long-standing animosity is within reach, but previous talks had failed to reach consensus on a draft agreement.

“The negotiation process on the text of the peace agreement with Armenia has been concluded,” Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov told reporters.

“Armenia has accepted Azerbaijan’s proposals on the two previously unresolved articles of the peace treaty,” he said.

Armenia’s foreign ministry later confirmed that in a statement, saying “negotiations on the draft agreement have been concluded” and “the Peace Agreement is ready for signing”.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan hailed an “important event”, saying Yerevan was “ready to begin discussions on the place and time for signing the peace agreement”.

“We believe this text is a compromise, as a peace agreement should be,” he told reporters.

But in a hint at enduring tensions, Armenia criticised Azerbaijan for making a statement unilaterally rather than issuing a joint one.

Pashinyan has recognised Baku’s sovereignty over Karabakh after three decades of Armenian separatist rule, a move seen as a crucial first step towards a normalisation of relations.

Armenia also last year returned to Azerbaijan four border villages it had seized decades earlier.

Armenia-Russia tension

Tensions over the conflict have also driven a wedge between Armenia and Russia, with Yerevan accusing its ally of not doing enough to support it.

Armenia last year suspended its participation in the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) over the bloc’s failure to come to its aid in the conflict with Azerbaijan.

Russia, the United States and the European Union have all tried to play a mediating role at various times in the conflict.

Pashinyan said Thursday that two points in the draft peace agreement had remained unresolved up to now.

One key issue was “non-deployment of third-party forces” along the countries’ shared border, he said.

There were also disagreements over plans for both sides to mutually withdraw legal cases from international judicial bodies.

Constitutional changes

The two countries have been locked in legal battles at the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court and the European Court of Human Rights over allegations of rights violations committed before, during and after their armed conflicts.

Azerbaijan’s “next expectation from Armenia is constitutional amendments”, Bayramov said.

Baku is demanding that Armenia remove from its constitution a reference to its declaration of independence, which asserts territorial claims over Karabakh.

Any such amendments to Armenia’s constitution would require a referendum.