Yerevan proposes signing a peace treaty with Baku and joint application to dissolve the OSCE Minsk Group on the same day

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that Yerevan has proposed signing a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan, along with submitting a joint application to the OSCE for the dissolution of the Minsk Group on the same day.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, Prime Minister Pashinyan stated, both sides had entered the stage of negotiations over the signing of the agreement, and "I want to express my readiness to sign it on behalf of the people of Armenia."

DISSOLUTION OF THE OSCE MINSK GROUP

Azerbaijan has officially linked the signing of the agreement to two key issues, the first is the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group.

"I have repeatedly stated that this is an understandable and acceptable agenda for the Republic of Armenia. However, the OSCE Minsk Group, at least de facto, carries a broader context. We want to ensure that Azerbaijan does not interpret its dissolution as a step toward concluding the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict solely within the territory of Azerbaijan and shifting the focus to the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia," - Pashinyan stated.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has proposed that the Peace Agreement with Azerbaijan and the joint application to the OSCE for the dissolution of the Minsk Group be signed simultaneously.

“In other words, both documents—the Peace Agreement and the joint application—should be placed on the table and signed at the same time and in the same place. This, I would like to emphasize, is an official proposal,” Pashinyan stated.

REVISION OF ARMENIA'S CONSTITUTION 

Pashinyan announced that Armenia had submitted a formal written proposal to Azerbaijan regarding the ongoing border demarcation process. The proposals outline a methodology and identify specific areas where delimitation could continue, in accordance with a prior mutual agreement to proceed from north to south.

Both sides agreed to initiate the process from the northern point where the borders of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia intersect, progressing southward to the border with Iran.

“We have put forward our ideas on which segment to begin with, and now we await Azerbaijan’s position,” Pashinyan told reporters on Thursday. He added that he does not consider the process to be at a deadlock and reaffirmed Armenia’s commitment to advancing negotiations.

Pashinyan also stirred significant political debate by suggesting that Armenia’s new constitution should omit references to the 1990 Declaration of Independence, which affirms the country's historical and legal connection to Nagorny Karabakh.

“In my view, the new constitution should not contain a reference to the Declaration of Independence,” he said. 

According to Pashinyan, Armenia’s Constitutional Court has affirmed that the principle outlined in the Alma-Ata Declaration—stating that the territory of independent Armenia corresponds to that of the former Soviet Armenia, and the territory of independent Azerbaijan corresponds to that of the former Soviet Azerbaijan—is fully consistent with the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia. This principle also served as the basis for the agreement between the parties to normalize relations during the meeting in Prague on October 6, 2022.

Pashinyan stated that a draft of peacy agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan included essential provisions addressing the issue of territorial claims. "

"It affirms that both parties have no territorial claims against each another and commit not to make such claims in the future. This mutual understanding is based on the recognition of each other’s territorial integrity, in accordance with the borders of the former Soviet Republics as defined by the Alma-Ata Declaration," - he added.

Prime Minister said that the Government is required to submit the text of the Peace Agreement to the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia for a review to ensure its compliance with the Constitution.

If the Armenia's Constitutional Court rules that the text of the Peace Agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan is in compliance with the Constitution of Armenia, then there will be no legal obstacles to its ratification by the National Assembly. Once ratified by Parliament, Article 5, Paragraph 3 of the Constitution will come into effect, which states: "In case of conflict between the norms of international treaties ratified by the Republic of Armenia and those of laws, the norms of international treaties shall apply."

This means that, following ratification, the Peace Agreement will hold the highest legal authority in Armenia—as it will in Azerbaijan. 

"Despite all the difficulties and complications, the Government—and I personally—remain fully committed to the Peace Agenda . It is evident that certain forces, both within Armenia and beyond its borders, are engaging in daily war propaganda and taking deliberate actions aimed at making conflict a reality," - Pashinyan stated. 

"There is no justification for war. Armenia and Azerbaijan have mutually recognized each other’s territorial integrity, sovereignty, the inviolability of internationally recognized borders, and the inadmissibility of the use of force or the threat of force."

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