The Only Obstacle is the Armenian Constitution: Aliyev's Special Representative

Armenia and Azerbaijan have made significant progress in the final formulation of a peace treaty. This was stated by Elchin Amirbekov, the special representative of the Azerbaijani president for special assignments, during discussions at the Hudson Institute while on a visit to the United States.

According to him, the parties have never been closer to a peace treaty. “A historic opportunity has been created for both countries to turn the page on enmity, changing the landscape of the South Caucasus region into one of friendship, peace, and stability. This process has been ongoing for a long time. Negotiations around mediation have been underway for about 30 years. However, in December of last year, both countries decided that the most effective and promising format for conducting and concluding negotiations is a bilateral and direct approach. Since then, significant progress has been made, including in establishing mutual trust and continuing certain processes, including the exchange of diplomatic support, the release of certain detainees, and the initiation of practical work on delimiting borders,” he noted.

Amirbekov added that looking at the text of the peace agreement on the table, one can say that the parties are very close to completing their work on it.

Speaking about the possible timelines for signing the peace treaty, Amirbekov stated that it largely depends on the Armenian side's willingness to eliminate the only remaining obstacle: the territorial claims against Azerbaijan enshrined in the Armenian Constitution.

“Most of the text of the peace agreement has been agreed upon. All other issues can be resolved, but we cannot go further and sign a peace treaty while ignoring the existential root cause of this conflict, which is the territorial claims against Azerbaijan enshrined in the Armenian Constitution. We are still not confident in the sincerity of the Armenian authorities when they say they have renounced territorial claims against Azerbaijan because there is a clear contradiction between their official public rhetoric and the situation existing in the constitutional and legal sphere. This contradiction must be resolved in order to pave the way for potential peace,” he said.

He argued that a confidence-building measure could be the so-called opening of the Zangezur corridor. According to Amirbekov, the opening of the corridor could change the rules of the game for the entire region. “This is a beneficial project. The Armenian government talks a lot about the crossroads project of peace. I think the only way to realize it is to allow Armenia to open two of its four borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey,” Amirbekov concluded.