Azerbaijan hopes to sign a peace treaty with Armenia on June 1

“We hope we can finally sign on June 1″ [Azerbaidžānas un Armēnijas] peace treaty,” he said.

This is a historic moment not to be missed,” he stressed.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at a press conference on 22 May that he thinks it is possible to sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan in Chisinau on 1 June if Baku and Yerevan complete the harmonization of the document.

“Our task is to finish the negotiations as soon as possible. [par miera līgumu ar Azerbaidžānu] and sign the document. Our team is working hard,” he said.

The Prime Minister announced that Armenia submitted the draft peace treaty proposals to Azerbaijan and is waiting for Baku’s response.

Regarding the possibility of signing the agreement in Chisinau on June 1, Pashinyan said, “We will see if we can accept this approach as acceptable within the framework of the compromises, then why not”, he said.

However, we have not received a response from Azerbaijan so far,” he said.

Pashinyan said in Moscow on Thursday that Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed on mutual recognition of the territorial unity.

He also said that it recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, which includes Nagorno-Karabakh, on the condition that the security of the Armenian people is guaranteed.

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 region inhabited by Armenians as its territory. The international community also considers Nagorno-Karabakh to be 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 war between Azerbaijan and Armenia. About 35,000 people died in the war, and more than a million people in both countries were forced from their homes.

In September 2020, conflicts resumed between Armenia and Azerbaijan, in which about 6,500 people lost their lives.

Hostilities lasted for six weeks and ended on November 9, 2020, when Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a ceasefire agreement over Russia.