Munich (TDI): A lasting peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia can be signed “the very next day” if Armenia amends its constitution to remove territorial claims against Azerbaijan, President Ilham Aliyev said on Friday.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, Aliyev reiterated that Baku’s position on the peace process has long been communicated to Yerevan, and that the formal completion of the peace process hinges on changes to Armenia’s basic law.
“We are ready to sign a final peace treaty as soon as the necessary constitutional amendments are adopted,” Aliyev told Azerbaijani journalists in Munich, stressing that peace has already been effectively established between the two sides following a summit in Washington last August.
He highlighted the joint declaration reached at that summit as evidence of de facto peace, but noted that formal treaty remains unsigned pending Armenia’s internal legal steps.
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A key sticking point, according to Aliyev, is the presence in Armenia’s constitution of references that Baku considers territorial claims against Azerbaijani sovereignty.
He framed the demand for constitutional change not as interference in Armenia’s domestic affairs but as a necessary assurance against any future government reviving claims over Azerbaijan’s territory.
Armenia’s leadership has argued that the constitution does not, in practice, contain enforceable territorial claims against Azerbaijan, and has emphasized that the peace treaty text itself is designed to resolve outstanding issues, including territorial integrity.
Past statements from Armenian officials have acknowledged the need for long-term constitutional reform for broader national renewal, though not specifically as a precondition set by Baku.
The two Caucasus neighbors agreed on the text of a bilateral peace treaty in March 2025 under US mediation, aiming to formally end decades of conflict that flared most recently in the 2020 war over Nagorno-Karabakh.
