YEREVAN (Azatutyun) —Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev spoke on the sidelines of a European Political Community summit held in Albania’s capital, Tirana, on Friday, May 16.
A short video of the conversation released by Pashinyan’s office showed the two men talking one-on-one in a conference hall lobby before being joined by their foreign ministers and aides. The office said they discussed an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty essentially finalized by the two sides in March.
“The parties discussed the current situation and emphasized the importance of continuing the process towards its signing,” it added in a statement.
Aliyev’s office and news agencies controlled by him did not immediately comment on the talks. Baku has repeatedly made clear that the signing of the treaty is first and foremost conditional on a change of the Armenian constitution which it says contains territorial claims to Azerbaijan.
Pashinyan denied the existence of such claims when he spoke to an Azerbaijani reporter in Tirana late on Thursday, May 15. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry responded the following morning by accusing him of “again trying to mislead the international community.” A ministry spokesman said the Armenian constitution “poses a direct threat to Azerbaijan’s national security” and its change is a “fundamental condition for peace.”
While rejecting this precondition, Pashinyan has pledged to try to enact a new constitution through a referendum expected in 2026. His political opponents have vowed to scuttle its adoption. They say that Pashinyan’s appeasement policy only encourages Aliyev to demand more concessions from Yerevan.
