By Alexander Pracht
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held a rare brief conversation on the sidelines of the European Political Community summit in Tirana, Albania, the Armenian government reported on Friday.
According to a post on the government’s official Facebook page, the two leaders discussed the text of a long-awaited normalization agreement between their countries and the next steps toward its signing. This was the first direct interaction between Pashinyan and Aliyev since their meeting during a BRICS summit in Russia last October, where they also discussed normalization between the nations.
Pashinyan and Aliyev are attending the Tirana summit along with other European leaders. Their conversation follows the announcement made separately in March by both countries’ foreign ministries that they had completed negotiations on the normalization treaty’s text after a year and a half of negotiations. Yerevan accepted Baku’s proposals on the last two disputed points, namely, the withdrawal of legal claims against each other in international courts and the removal of third-country representatives from the shared border.
However, although the treaty had been agreed upon, Baku stressed that it upheld its demands, framed as “pre-conditions,” toward Yerevan.
“The next step is for Armenia to amend its constitution,” Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said at the time, referring to Baku’s objections to a provision in Armenia’s constitutional preamble that mentions the country’s Declaration of Independence. The latter says that Armenia must unite with Nagorno-Karabakh, which Baku considers a territorial claim.
While Armenian officials have stated they plan to hold a constitutional referendum either next year or in 2027, Baku has repeatedly insisted, since March, that the changes must be made much sooner, framing the demand as a form of ultimatum.
Immediately after Bayramov’s announcement, Azerbaijan began accusing Armenia of ceasefire violations on an almost daily basis, an approach Baku has often used to exert political pressure on Yerevan. Azerbaijani forces have also opened fire with rifles toward Armenian settlements near the border. Unlike Baku, Yerevan has consistently released evidence of such incidents and urged Azerbaijan to investigate them, but has received no response.
While the EU’s civilian monitoring mission remains deployed on Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan, much to Baku’s discontent, Pashinyan previously said the observers could be withdrawn from sections of the frontier that have been officially delimited. So far, this includes only a 12-kilometer section along Armenia’s Tavush region and Azerbaijan’s Gazakh district.
Thursday’s meeting in Tirana marked the third time the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders have held talks within the framework of the European Political Community. The first was in Czechia’s Prague in October 2022, when they publicly committed to mutual recognition of territorial integrity based on Soviet-era borders. The second took place in June 2023 in Chisinau, Moldova.
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