Azerbaijan has refused to sign an interim peace treaty with Armenia based on articles both parties had already agreed on, despite having proposed to do so earlier this year.

On Wednesday, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Aykhan Hajiade stated that signing a framework peace treaty with Armenia which only included mutually agreed upon provisions was ‘unacceptable’ and only served to ‘postpone the solution of existing problems in bilateral relations to the next stage’.

Hajizade echoed previous Azerbaijani demands that Armenia end its ‘continuing’ territorial claims against Azerbaijan in its legislation and constitution.

His remarks came in response to a speech on the ongoing peace talks delivered by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan earlier that day at the Yerevan Dialogue conference.

Pashinyan reiterated Armenia’s offer to sign the already agreed-upon articles of the peace treaty with Azerbaijan, to have ‘a fundamental document’, and then move on to discussing other issues.

Pashinyan added that articles contained ‘internationally accepted core provisions’ for establishing relations, noting that it envisages a mechanism that would enable the two parties to continue discussions through a joint mechanism and to also establish diplomatic relations.

Pashinyan quoted high-ranking Azerbaijani officials, including President Ilham Aliyev, as saying that ‘almost 80% of the peace treaty paragraphs have been approved’.

Despite turning down Pashinyan’s offer, Azerbaijan made a similar proposal in July, calling on Armenia to sign a document on the basic principles of a future peace treaty as an interim peace measure, a proposal that received a cold reception in Yerevan at the time.

Pashinyan proposed a similar measure at a press conference on 31 August, stating that the current draft of the treaty included thirteen articles that had been fully agreed upon, with three other partially accepted articles.

‘In any case, we, or anyone, else can’t ever have the kind of peace treaty that would regulate all possible issues’, said Pashinyan.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov rejected Pashinyan’s offer a few days later, stating on 2 September that Baku had received the latest draft of the treaty from Armenia a few hours before Pashinyan’s press conference, and that ‘several key points’ had been removed from the document.

‘Important aspects were not included in the draft of the agreement, and we were told that this was the solution to the issue. In the context of a historical conflict, the agreement and each of its clauses are of great importance’, he said, recommending that Armenia ‘take these issues more seriously’. 

Despite Azerbaijan’s negative reaction to the latest draft, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan earlier this week said that the draft Armenia had submitted ‘largely includes the fully agreed text’ and that Yerevan was awaiting Baku’s response to it.

‘There is a real opportunity to sign the peace treaty in a short period of time’, he said.

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hajizada criticised Mirzoyan’s remarks, stating that ‘instead of adequately reacting to the commentary made by Azerbaijan, Armenia tried to turn a blind eye to the challenges by removing the necessary provisions that are necessary to be reflected in the draft.’

It is unclear what exactly Armenia was alleged to have left out of its draft.

In August, Azerbaijan agreed to withdraw their demand from the agreement for a ‘Zangezur corridor’ — a proposed transit link connecting mainland Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakhchivan. 

The issue was considered a major roadblock to the signing of a peace treaty, with Azerbaijan then stating that Armenia’s constitution was ‘the only obstacle to further progress in the peace process’.

The Armenian constitution references the Armenian Declaration of Independence, which includes a joint decision by the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Karabakh Council to ‘reunify the Armenian SSR and the Mountainous Region of Karabakh’.

While Armenia has repeatedly denied that changing its constitution was a precondition for a peace treaty with Azerbaijan, Pashinyan in May issued a decree to draft a new constitution by December 2026, and at the end of August, the government announced plans to hold a referendum to approve a new constitution in 2027.