Arlington, 28 June 2023 (TDI): The US initiated peace talks between the archrivals, Azerbaijan and Armenia, in Washington on June 27, 2023, to resolve their differences and settle the issue of Nagarno Karabakh to ensure peace and security in the region.
A postponed negotiation between Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, accompanied by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, which was expected to take place in early June, was finally conducted yesterday in Arlington and will continue until June 29.
The main motive for these engagements was to draft a peace agreement and orchestrate friendly relations between the two countries by ending their decade-long territorial conflict.
During the Azerbaijan-Armenia peace talks, the Armenian Foreign Minister highlighted several issues and emphasized that regional tranquillity is conditioned on the resolution of such challenges. He also reaffirmed Armenia’s commitment to facilitate peace measures while stressing equal efforts from both sides.
The trilateral talks were followed by bilateral consultations between Azerbaijan and Armenia delegations in Washington, D.C.
Azerbaijan-Armenia Relations
Azerbaijan and Armenia are part of the Caucus region and have been indulged in decades of war over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is located in Azerbaijan but populated by ethnic Armenians. The unresolved question of the status of the contested region as well as the ethnic Armenians living, there, strains relations between the two sides.
Russia brokered a ceasefire between the two sides after the war in 2020, and since then, Russia and the US have been engaged in mediating peace talks between them to bring peace and stability to the region and root out this decade-long enmity.
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However, Azerbaijan-Armenia peace talks are not new. In fact, there is a history of such events where the two sides came together on the negotiating table for a peace agreement only to back off from the process later.
Peace talks are a significant process, especially amid times of heightened tensions between both sides, with frequent cross-border fires and the killing of innocents.
As another series of cross-border fires were witnessed today, killing Armenian soldiers with Azerbaijani fires, it is uncertain whether the three-day peace process will strengthen or weaken the ties between the two parties.
