Nikolai Topornin: Border delimitation is the main disagreement in the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace treaty

Head of the Center for European Information, MGIMO Associate Professor Nikolai Topornin commented to Alpha News on the prospect of signing a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan by the end of this year.

According to the expert, the reason that the text of the peace treaty has not yet been agreed upon is that the border delimitation has not been made.

“The Armenian side proceeds from the fact that the agreement should be based on the CIS Alma-Ata Declaration of 1991, which precisely defines the borders of the countries. And this is the main disagreement: because the borders are not fully marked, delimitation has not been made. Azerbaijan has its own vision of where and how to delimit borders, while Armenia has its own approach. I believe that it is precisely because of these disagreements that the text of the peace treaty has not yet been agreed upon.

Azerbaijan would like to resume the logistics routes leading from Azerbaijan to the Nakhichevan Republic, that is, to restart the Meghri railway and restore the operation of all checkpoints. But Armenia has its own interests: it wants the safety of all cargo, vehicles, movement of persons, pipelines, and power transmission to be ensured. Armenia needs guarantees that Azerbaijan will not unilaterally allow any violations of this agreement. Therefore, such details are important and need to be worked on,” Topornin said.

According to the expert, there are prospects for signing a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan by the end of this year, but it is also possible that the parties will be able to reach it in the first quarter of 2024.

“We see, unfortunately, that the dialogue between Pashinyan and Aliyev has not yet taken place. We know that Azerbaijani President Aliyev did not attend the European Union meeting in Granada, where Pashinyan was, and then Pashinyan did not attend the CIS meeting in Bishkek. Negotiations with the participation of the foreign ministers took place; there were meetings, that is, positions were agreed upon, but nevertheless, the final decision is up to the leaders of the two states.

In my opinion, there is a prospect of signing a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan before the end of this year, but still, knowing how difficult it is to resolve controversial issues, I also admit that a peace agreement will not be signed this year, and the parties will be able to reach it in the first quarter of 2024,” Topornin said.