Top diplomats from Armenia, Azerbaijan meet in Geneva for peace talks

• Azerbaijan and Armenia have held talks in Geneva on a future peace treaty.
• At least 286 people were killed in recent clashes between the neighbours.
• Baku and Yerevan fought two wars – in 2020 and in the 1990s – over Nagorno-Karabakh.

According to officials in Baku and Yerevan, the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan met in Geneva on a future peace treaty following recent deadly clashes between the arch-foes.

At least 286 people were killed on both sides last month before a truce brokered by the US ended the worst fighting since the Caucasus neighbours’ 2020 war.

Baku and Yerevan fought two wars over Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-populated enclave of Azerbaijan, in 2020 and in the 1990s.

Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov met in Geneva on Sunday to begin “drafting the text of the peace treaty,” the Baku Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

The talks came after an EU-mediated meeting between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on August 31 in Brussels.

Azerbaijan has called for the “complete withdrawal of Armenian armed units from Azerbaijani territory, as well as the opening of transport and communication lines,” according to the ministry.

According to Armenia’s foreign ministry, “the parties exchanged ideas on the peace treaty, ensuring the rights and security guarantees of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians.”

It reaffirmed its demands for Azerbaijani troops to “withdraw from the sovereign territory of Armenia,” the release of POWs, and the “institution of international mechanisms for border control.”

The two foreign ministers last met in New York on September 20 for talks mediated by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The six-week war in 2020 killed over 6,500 soldiers on both sides and ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire.

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