Armenian leader Nikol Pashinyan said on Monday his nation was willing to recognise the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave in its entirety as a part of Azerbaijan given rights of ethnic Armenians living in the region are guaranteed. He acknowledged, “The 86,600 sq km of Azerbaijan’s territory includes Nagorno-Karabakh.” “If we understand each other correctly, then Armenia recognises the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan within the named limits, and Baku – the territorial integrity of Armenia at 29,800 sq km,” he added.
Earlier, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that a peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia was inevitable. He said, after meeting with his Lithuanian counterpart, Gitanas Nauseda, in Vilnius, “We think that the signing of a peace treaty is inevitable and are trying to make constructive efforts to achieve this goal. Naturally, this peace treaty should embrace international norms and principles.”
Armenia rocked by anti-government protests
Meanwhile, opposition parties have been organising massive anti-government protests over early hints that Pashinyan could hand over the Nagorno-Karabakh region to Azerbaijan. Former Armenian President Robert Kocharian in early May even demanded Pashinyan’s resignation.
“We are launching a popular protest movement to force Pashinyan to resign,” parliament vice speaker and opposition leader Ishkhan Saghatelyan was quoted as saying by AFP. “He is a traitor, he has lied to the people. He has no popular mandate to do so,” he added.
Recent peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan
In April, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held a rare meeting mediated by the European Union in Brussels. Following the meeting, they instructed their respective foreign ministers to initiate preparatory work for peace negotiations.
Watch: WION Fineprint: Why are Armenia and Azerbaijan fighting
The meeting was prompted by a recent escalation in the Karabakh region on March 25. During this incident, Azerbaijan seized a strategically important village in an area that falls under the responsibility of Russian peacekeepers. The clash resulted in the death of three separatist troops.
In mid-March, Baku presented a series of framework proposals for a peace agreement. One key aspect of the proposal is the mutual recognition of territorial integrity by both sides, implying that Yerevan should acknowledge that Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan.
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan sparked controversy within Armenia when he commented on the Azerbaijani proposal. Mirzoyan stated that for Yerevan, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not solely a territorial issue but rather a matter of the rights of the local ethnic Armenian population.
The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh originated when ethnic Armenian separatists declared independence from Azerbaijan following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The ensuing hostilities resulted in the loss of approximately 30,000 lives.
