Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed on mutual recognition of territorial unity

On this basis, the countries are “moving well” towards the normalization of relations, the Prime Minister said.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, in turn, stated that Baku has no territorial claims against Armenia.

The countries have a chance to come closer to a peace agreement, “given that Armenia has recognized Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan,” Aliyev said.

Even before these statements, Pashinyan announced at a press conference in Yerevan that he recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, which includes Nagorno-Karabakh, on the condition that the security of the Armenian population is guaranteed.

Aliyev also pointed out that there are serious prerequisites for the normalization of relations, considering that both Armenia and Azerbaijan have recognized the territorial unity of the other.

It is expected that the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders will hold talks through the Russian president on Thursday.

Nagorno-Karabakh, which was part of the Azerbaijan SSR during the Soviet era, has been a “de facto” independent Armenian republic since the early 1990s. Although Azerbaijan has not controlled Nagorno-Karabakh since the collapse of the USSR, it considers the Armenian-populated region as its territory. The international community also considers Nagorno-Karabakh a part of Azerbaijan, and no country has recognized the independence of this region.

Nagorno-Karabakh declared its independence in 1991. Its separation from Azerbaijan led to a war between Azerbaijan and Armenia. About 35,000 people lost their lives in the war, and more than a million in both countries were forced to leave their homes.

In September 2020, hostilities broke out again between Armenia and Azerbaijan, in which approximately 6,500 people lost their lives.

The hostilities lasted for six weeks and ended on November 9, 2020, when Armenia and Azerbaijan concluded a cease-fire agreement through Russia.