Yerevan [Armenia], December 8: On December 7, Armenia and Azerbaijan issued a joint statement that the European Union considered an "important step".
On December 7, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed in a joint statement to seize "a historic opportunity to achieve long-awaited peace in the region". "The two countries reaffirmed their intention to normalize relations and reach a peace treaty on the basis of respect for the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity," the statement read, according to AFP.
Also according to the above statement, Baku will release 32 Armenian prisoners of war , while Yerevan will release two Azerbaijani soldiers. The two sides added they "will continue to discuss implementing more effective confidence-building measures in the near future and call on the international community to support their efforts".
The above progress was achieved in negotiations between the office of Armenian Prime Minister NikolPashinyan and the administration of Azerbaijani President IlhamAliyev. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan have said a peace deal could be signed by the end of the year.
Armenia's Foreign Ministry said Yerevan "responded positively to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's proposal to organize a meeting between the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Washington".
European Council President Charles Michel praised the December 7 joint statement by Armenia and Azerbaijan in a social media post, calling it an "important step". "Welcome a major breakthrough in Armenia-Azerbaijan relations as they issue a joint statement," he wrote.
Aliyev and Pashinyan have met several times in EU-brokered normalization negotiations. However, this process has stalled over the past two months due to two rounds of negotiations failing to take place, according to AFP.
Azerbaijan has refused to participate in negotiations with Armenia planned in the US on November 20, because of what it considers Washington's "biased" stance. Previously, in October, Mr. Aliyev refused to attend the round of negotiations with Mr. Pashinyan in Spain, accusing France of bias.
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Prime Minister Olaf Scholz were scheduled to join Mr. Michel as mediators at those talks. So far, the EU's efforts to organize a new round of negotiations have not made clear progress.
Neighbors Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a decades-long conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region , which Azerbaijan reclaimed after a blitzkrieg against ethnic Armenian separatists in September.
Mr. Aliyev sent troops to the Nagorno-Karabakh region on September 19, and after just a day of fighting, Armenian separatist forces, who had controlled that disputed area for three decades, laid down their weapons and agreed to reintegrate with Azerbaijan. .
In the following days, almost all ethnic Armenians, more than 100,000 people, left Nagorno-Karabakh for Armenia, causing a refugee crisis.
Azerbaijan's victory marks the end of the territorial dispute, in which Azerbaijan and Armenia fought two wars in 2020 and the 1990s that claimed tens of thousands of lives on both sides, according to AFP.
Source: ThanhNien Newspaper
