Armenia, Azerbaijan agree to take steps towards normalisation

Arch-foes Armenia and Azerbaijan said Thursday (7 December) they would exchange prisoners of war and work towards normalising their relations, in a joint statement hailed by the EU as a “breakthrough”.

The Caucasus neighbours have been locked in a decades-long conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Azerbaijan reclaimed after a lightning offensive against Armenian separatists in September.

Both countries have said a peace agreement could be signed by the end of the year, but peace talks — mediated separately by the EU, the US and Russia — have seen little progress.

The two sides agreed in a joint statement to seize “a historical chance to achieve a long-awaited peace in the region”.

“The two countries reconfirm their intention to normalize relations and to reach the peace treaty on the basis of respect for the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the statement said.

Baku will free 32 Armenian prisoners of war, while Yerevan will release two Azerbaijani servicemen, according to the statement.

The two countries also said they “will continue their discussions regarding the implementation of more confidence building measures, effective in the near future, and call on the international community to support their efforts”.

The agreements were reached during talks between the office of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and the administration of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev.

Armenia’s foreign ministry said Yerevan had “responded positively to the offer of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to organise the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Washington”.

EU Council President Charles Michel praised the statement Thursday in a post on social media, calling it a “key step”.

“Delighted to welcome a major breakthrough in Armenia-Azerbaijan relations as they issue a joint statement,” he said.

The United States welcomed what it also called a “confidence building measure” between the two countries.

“This commitment represents an important confidence building measure as the sides work to finalize a peace agreement and normalize relations,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement Thursday.

Stalled talks

Aliyev and Pashinyan have met on several occasions for normalisation talks mediated by the European Union.

But the process has stalled over the last two months as two rounds of negotiations failed to take place.

Azerbaijan refused to participate in talks with Armenia that were planned in the United States on 20 November, over what it said was Washington’s “biased” position.

In October, Aliyev declined to attend a round of negotiations with Pashinyan in Spain, that time accusing France of bias.

French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had been scheduled to join Michel as mediators at those talks.

There has been no visible progress so far in EU efforts to organise a fresh round of negotiations.

The traditional regional power broker Russia — bogged down in its Ukraine war — has seen its influence wane in the Caucasus.

Aliyev sent troops to Karabakh on 19 September, and after just one day of fighting, Armenian separatist forces that had controlled the disputed region for three decades laid down arms and agreed to reintegrate with Baku.

Almost the entire Armenian population of the mountainous enclave – more than 100,000 people — fled Karabakh for Armenia over the following days, sparking a refugee crisis.

Azerbaijan’s victory marked the end of the territorial dispute, which saw Azerbaijan and Armenia fight two wars in 2020 and the 1990s that claimed tens of thousands of lives from both sides.

Armenia backs Azerbaijan to host COP29

As part of a series of mutual goodwill gestures intended to promote reconciliation between the estranged South Caucasus neighbours, Armenia agreed on Thursday not to block Azerbaijan’s candidacy to host next year’s COP29 UN climate conference.

Both Armenia and Azerbaijan are candidates to host COP28, as the turn has come for a country from eastern Europe to organise the international gathering. Other candidates reportedly include Bulgaria, Serbia and Moldova.

Meanwhile, Russia has vetoed bids from countries from the EU – which has sanctioned Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. That blocked Bulgaria’s bid to host.

Whether any of the latest candidate countries will win regional approval remains to be seen. Diplomats are racing to reach a decision before the COP28 summit’s scheduled end on 12 December.

Azerbaijan to hold early presidential election

Aliyev, riding high on a wave of support for his recapture of Nagorno-Karabakh, on Thursday called an early presidential election for 7 February.

Aliyev, 61, was last re-elected in 2018 for a seven-year term, with a declared 86% of the vote, in a poll boycotted by major opposition parties.

With political dissent largely suppressed, there is little doubt that he will win a new termas usual by a landslide. Heydar Aliyev and Ilham Aliyev, father and son, have successively governed the country with an iron fist since its independence from the former USSR.

(Edited by Georgi Gotev)

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