ISTANBUL

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Wednesday declared his readiness to sign the draft of a peace deal agreed upon between his country and neighboring Azerbaijan.

“The draft of Peace Agreement between #Armenia and #Azerbaijan is agreed and waiting to be signed. I’m ready to put my signature under the agreed draft,” Pashinyan said in a statement on X.

Pashinyan’s remarks came as both Azerbaijan and Armenia separately announced an agreement on the draft of a peace deal last Thursday, set to end a decades-long conflict and establish diplomatic ties between Baku and Yerevan.

Relations between the two former Soviet republics have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Karabakh – a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan – and seven adjacent regions.

Most of the territory was liberated by Azerbaijan during a 44-day war in the fall of 2020, which ended after a Russian-brokered peace agreement that opened the door to normalization and demarcation talks.

In September 2023, Azerbaijan established full sovereignty in Karabakh after separatist forces in the region surrendered.