Armenia submits the draft Nagorno-Karabakh peace treaty to Azerbaijan

Armenia has presented a comprehensive peace treaty to Azerbaijan to end the decades-old conflict between the Caucasus neighbors over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

This was announced by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at a cabinet meeting in Yerevan on Thursday.

“The final and complete version of the agreement with our proposals has been delivered,” Pashinyan said.

The two countries fought two wars for control of the Azerbaijani enclave populated by Armenians that claimed tens of thousands of lives.

Since then, internationally mediated peace talks between the former Soviet republics have yielded little results.

He added that Yerevan concluded on Wednesday “another stage of work on a draft peace treaty and the establishment of (diplomatic) relations” with Baku.

Pashinyan claimed that “the document must be acceptable to Azerbaijan … its signing must lead to lasting peace.”

The agreement provides for monitoring mechanisms by both sides to prevent breaches of the peace.

Copies have been sent to OSCE members Russia, the United States and France.

These countries co-chair the Minsk Group formed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in 1992 to search for a peaceful solution to the conflict.

The announcement came after Yerevan accused Baku of pursuing an “ethnic cleansing policy” and forcing Armenians to leave the region.

Since mid-December, a group of Azerbaijani environmental activists have been blocking the only road connecting Karabakh with Armenia in protest of illegal mining in the region.

But according to Yerevan, the blockade has led to an “all-out humanitarian crisis” in the mountainous region, which is facing shortages of food, medicine and fuel.

Armenia won the first Nagorno-Karabakh war that ended in 1994, and took control of the region. However, Azerbaijan regained a large part of its lands in the second war in 2020.

Sporadic clashes have erupted since then, despite a peace deal brokered by Russia. However, Armenia has expressed its disappointment with Russian peacekeepers in the region and has called for an international monitoring mission.