The deputy director of the Baku-based Topchubashov Centre, Murad Muradov, has visited Armenia to participate in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s 108th Rose-Rorth seminar.
Muradov arrived in Yerevan ahead of the seminar’s kick-off on Monday, which also saw delegations from both Turkey and Azerbaijan visiting Armenia’s capital. Armenia last hosted the event in 2015.
While in Yerevan, during a press briefing, Muradov reiterated Azerbaijan’s official position that the ‘only remaining barrier to a full peace treaty and normalisation’ is the Armenian Constitution. He suggested that Armenia’s Declaration of Independence, ‘creates potential legal grounds for [...] reconsidering the peace agreement’.
The Declaration of Independence referenced in the constitution alludes to a joint statement made by Soviet Armenia’s Supreme Council and the Nagorno-Karabakh National Council on their ‘reunification’.
Azerbaijani officials, including President Ilham Aliyev, have repeatedly stated that Armenia’s constitution contains territorial claims against Azerbaijan, demanding that it be changed.
Armenia has officially expressed its intention to change the constitution; however, it insists that it would not be doing so based on Azerbaijan’s demands.
Most recently, on 19 September, the ruling Civil Contract party adopted a declaration expressing its intention to establish the ‘Fourth Republic of Armenia’ should it win the 2026 parliamentary elections. As part of this, the party also intends to adopt a new constitution through a national referendum.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
During his visit to Yerevan, Muradov claimed that the Azerbaijani constitution does not contain any territorial claims against Armenia, and that the ‘western Azerbaijan’ narratives does not either, claiming that the non-governmental organisation with the same name ‘represents the interests of people who used to live in the territory of the Republic of Armenia and it’s concerned with the kind of cultural heritage’.
Azerbaijani officials often refer to Armenian territory inhabited by Azerbaijanis prior to their conflict as ‘western Azerbaijan’ — Armenia has long viewed the narrative as constituting territorial claims against it.
Asked if Azerbaijan would be open to releasing Armenian prisoners — including Nagorno-Karabakh’s former leadership — as a gesture of peace, Muradov said it was ‘premature to speak about that in the context of a peace treaty’.
‘Especially considering that the Washington agreement also did not contain any mention of that. I think any further discussion should be built on political dialogue between Baku and Yerevan’, Muradov said.
The unprecedented Washington summit between Armenia, Azerbaijan and the US on 8 August saw the initialling of the peace treaty, as well as agreement to establish a route between Azerbaijan and its exclave of Nakhchivan through Armenia called the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP).
Muradov also suggested that there was a ‘willingness’ among Azerbaijanis for beginning a ‘normal co-existence with Armenia’, adding that ‘most’ people in Azerbaijan are ‘really positive’ about the peace.
Additionally, he said that the issue of Azerbaijan’s occupation of Armenian territories during attacks in 2021 and 2022 could be resolved through the delimitation process.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
Previous official visits between Armenia and Azerbaijan
Muradov’s visit marks the third time Armenian and Azerbaijani officials or other notable public figures have visited each others’ country.
Days earlier, on 19 September, Armenian authorities announced that a delegation led by Andranik Simonyan, the Chief of the National Security Services, would participate in a security forum to be held in Baku from 19–21 September.
Earlier, on 5 September, the chairs of the Armenian and Azerbaijani border delimitation committees, Mher Grigoryan and Shahin Mustafayev, held unprecedented mutual visits to each other’s respective countries.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
Aside from the recent visits, APA reported on Monday about ‘a memorable moment’ at the first stage of the Silk Way Star song competition in Kazakhstan.
‘Specifically, the jurors from Azerbaijan and Armenia mutually awarded the highest score of 10 points to performers representing both countries’, APA reported, adding that that was the first such instance in an international competition.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
