Pashinyan Proposes Nonaggression Pact With Azerbaijan

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev demanded safeguards against Armenian “revanchism” in December, saying that an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty would not be enough to preclude another war between the two countries. Pashinyan expressed on January 20 readiness to meet this demand if Azerbaijan recognizes Armenia’s territorial integrity through that treaty “without any reservations.”

Pashinyan tried hard to negotiate the peace treaty after explicitly recognizing Azerbaijani sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh about a year ago. He kept pressing for such an agreement even after Azerbaijan recaptured Karabakh and forced its entire population to flee to Armenia last September.

“The Republic of Armenia should identify itself with the territory on which it was recognized by the international community… We must state clearly and unequivocally that we do not and will not have any claims to any other territory, and this should become the strategic basis for ensuring Armenia’s external security,” Pashinyan said on Sunday.

The premier signaled on January 18 plans to try to enact a new Armenian constitution for that purpose, prompting scorn from opposition groups.

Commenting on Pashinyan’s latest statement, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry claimed that the current Armenian constitution contains “encroachments on the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan.” Instead of taking concrete steps to eliminate them, the Armenian government is voicing “proposals that make no practical sense,” a ministry spokesman said, adding that Yerevan is not serious about normalizing Armenian-Azerbaijani relations.

Azerbaijan remains reluctant to formally recognize Armenia’s current borders. In early January, Aliyev renewed his demands for Armenia to open an extraterritorial corridor to Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave. He also demanded Armenian withdrawal from “eight Azerbaijani villages” and again dismissed Yerevan’s insistence on using the most recent Soviet maps to delimit the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.