AZE.US
Azerbaijan and Armenia initialed a peace agreement more than a year ago, but the document has still not received final signatures, President Ilham Aliyev said Sunday.
Aliyev spoke in Shusha during a joint press appearance with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan following talks between the two leaders, Vesti Baku reports.
The Azerbaijani president said normalization between Baku and Yerevan is continuing and expressed hope that the process will produce concrete results. He stressed, however, that the peace agreement remains only initialed and has not entered into force as a fully signed treaty.
Aliyev did not provide a detailed list of obstacles during Sunday’s remarks, saying the reasons for the delay were known to the Azerbaijani and Turkish public. His statement did not indicate that the peace treaty had been concluded or that normalization was complete.
Agreement Initialed in Washington
The foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia initialed the agreed text of the Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and Interstate Relations in Washington on Aug. 8, 2025. The step was witnessed by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and U.S. President Donald Trump.
Aliyev has previously said the treaty has not been formally signed because Azerbaijan expects Armenia to remove from its constitution a provision that Baku says casts doubt on Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.
Türkiye Reaffirms Support
Erdoğan said that after the end of fighting, the central task was to consolidate the result through a durable peace. He reiterated Türkiye’s support for Azerbaijan’s efforts to establish long-term stability in the South Caucasus.
The Turkish president linked the possibility of a new regional phase to the outcome of the 44-day war in 2020 and said Ankara would continue its political support for Baku.
Aliyev’s new formulation clarified the current status of the negotiations: the sides have agreed and initialed the text, but the document has not become a formally signed peace agreement. He expressed hope for progress but gave no deadline.
The comments came during Erdoğan’s official visit to Azerbaijan on Nov. 8. Before the press statements, the two presidents held one-on-one talks in Shusha.