Turkiye hails progress made on Azerbaijan-Armenia peace in Brussels meeting

By Merve Aydogan

ANKARA (AA) – Turkiye on Friday welcomed the progress made toward an Azerbaijan-Armenia peace treaty during a meeting of the leaders of the two countries and the head of the European Council this week.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and European Council President Charles Michel held discussions in Brussels on Wednesday.

Ankara welcomes the decision of Azerbaijan and Armenia “to instruct their respective ministers of foreign affairs to begin preparations for a peace treaty as well as their agreement on the establishment of a joint border commission by the end of April between the two countries,” read a Turkish Foreign Ministry statement.

“Turkiye supports and actively contributes to the efforts for establishing peace and stability in the region,” the ministry said.

After the April 6 meeting, Michel announced that Aliyev and Pashinyan agreed to launch a “concrete process” for peace talks and made “a lot of progress.”

The leaders also agreed to set up a joint committee and to maintain a “channel of communication,” Michel told reporters after the five-hour meeting.

The two also agreed to convene a Joint Border Commission by the end of April “to delimit the bilateral border between Armenia and Azerbaijan and ensure a stable security situation along, and in the vicinity of, the borderline,” according to a statement released after the meeting.

Michel has been leading the EU’s efforts to forge peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

He first met Aliyev and Pashinyan separately in December 2021, a little over a year after the end of their 44-day war over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, before hosting them for a working dinner in Brussels.

Relations between the former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Upper Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

After new clashes erupted in September 2020, Azerbaijan liberated several cities and over 300 settlements and villages that were occupied by Armenia for almost 30 years.

The fighting ended in November 2020 with a deal brokered by Russia.​​​​​​​