Armenia Prime Minister extends non-aggression pact to Azerbaijan

• Pashinyan suggests a mutual arms control mechanism and a non-aggression pact.
• Armenia, a long-standing ally of Russia, needs to reconsider its security.
• The normalization talks between Pashinyan and Aliyev have been on hold since October.

On Sunday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced his proposal for the signing of a non-aggression pact with Azerbaijan, contingent upon reaching a comprehensive peace treaty between the arch-foe Caucasus neighbors. The disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, over which Yerevan and Baku fought two wars in 2020 and the 1990s, was recaptured by Azerbaijan in a lightning offensive last year.

“We have presented Azerbaijan with a proposal for a mutual arms control mechanism and the signing of a non-aggression pact if the signature of a peace treaty encounters delays,” Pashinyan said in a speech during an Armenian Army Day celebration event.

He also stated that Armenia, a longstanding ally of Russia that had expressed concerns about potential Azerbaijani military actions against its territory, must reconsider its security arrangements.

“We need to reconsider our strategic thinking in the security sphere and diversify our (international) relations in that sphere,” Pashinyan said.

“We are set to purchase new and modern weapons, and over the last years the government has signed contracts on arms procurement worth billions of dollars,” he added.

Azerbaijan has denied any territorial claims to Armenia and has ruled out initiating a fresh conflict with its fellow ex-Soviet republic. Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev had previously suggested that they could sign a peace agreement by the end of last year. However, internationally mediated peace talks have not yielded a breakthrough so far.

Last month, Armenia and Azerbaijan took the first step toward normalizing relations by exchanging prisoners of war.

The European Union, the United States, and regional powers Turkiye and Russia have praised the move as a ‘breakthrough’. The prisoner exchange has raised hopes for reviving face-to-face talks between Pashinyan and Aliyev.

The two leaders have participated in several normalization talks mediated by EU chief Charles Michel, but the process has been on hold since October.

With its ongoing Ukraine offensive, traditional regional power broker Russia has experienced a decline in influence in the Caucasus. On September 19, Aliyev deployed troops to Karabakh, and after just one day of fighting, Armenian separatists, who had controlled the region for three decades, surrendered and agreed to reintegrate with Baku.

However, in December, separatist leader Samvel Shahramanyan stated in Yerevan that his previous decree ordering the dissolution of separatist institutions was not valid. The takeover by Baku prompted almost the entire ethnic-Armenian population—more than 100,000 people—to flee Karabakh for Armenia, resulting in a refugee crisis.

Azerbaijan’s victory in September marked the resolution of the long-standing territorial dispute.

Also Read

Nagorno-Karabakh: 100,000 Refugees Seek Shelter in Armenia

Over 100,000 people have fled Nagorno-Karabakh following its seizure by Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan...