Azerbaijan, Armenia FMs Hold Next Round of Peace Talks in Kazakhstan

Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov met with his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan in Almaty, Kazakhstan, to negotiate the peace agenda.

According to the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan, the talks held on May 10-11 highlighted the progress on delimitation and agreements reached in this regard.

Ministers Bayramov and Mirzoyan and their delegations continued discussions on the provisions of the draft bilateral Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and Interstate Relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, agreeing to continue negotiations on the open issues where differences exist and hinder speedy signing of the peace treaty.

Prior to the meeting, Minister Bayramov announced that the installation of border markers between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the direction of the Gazakh district of Azerbaijan is practically completed. As part of the delimitation process between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the relevant areas along the border were cleared of mines and the geographical coordinates were specified.

Minister Mirzoyan said the recent developments between Baku and Yerevan contribute to the establishment of durable peace in the region, paving the way for versatile normalization, including the regulation of the railway connection between the two countries.

As of May 6, as many as 40 border markers were installed on the Azerbaijan-Armenia frontier, according to Azerbaijani media. Baku and Yerevan started the process of delimitation of their border on April 23, with the installation of the first border markers based on geodetic measurements.

The relevant agreements came at the eighth meeting of the two countries’ state commissions for border delimitation on April 19. Based on the results of the meeting, expert groups from both countries have started refining coordinates based on ground geodetic measurements.

As part of the delimitation and demarcation process, Armenia agreed to vacate four Azerbaijani border villages it has occupied since the early 1990s, when the two countries fought a bloody war over the Karabakh (Garabagh) region of Azerbaijan.

Meanwhile, the Armenian media reported that Russian border forces in Armenia have been closing their posts on the country’s border with Azerbaijan. Head of the “Civil Contract” faction of the Armenian parliament Hayk Konjoryan said the Russian border and military points stationed after the 2020 Karabakh war in the border regions of Armenia along the border with Azerbaijan would cease their activities and leave the posts.

The withdrawal of the Russian border troops was agreed during Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last week, TASS reported. President Putin’s Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed the agreement.

The locals in the Tavush region of Armenia have been protesting the border delimitation and return of the four occupied villages to Azerbaijan. The rallies spilled over into Yerevan, where protesters marched to demand resignation of PM Pashinyan.