Azerbaijan and Armenia are at "real peace" and rebuilding trade links after decades of conflict, a senior Azerbaijani official has said, but Baku is insisting on changes to Armenia's constitution before a final deal can be signed.
In an interview with Reuters on the sidelines of a forum in the city of Shusha this week, Hikmet Hajiyev, assistant to Azerbaijan's president and head of the president's foreign policy department, praised the countries' progress towards peace, including growing direct contacts and bilateral trade.
"We are living in conditions of real peace. For Azerbaijan and Armenia, peace is not just something written on paper or contained in a declaration — it is a reality," he said, pointing to increased supplies of Azerbaijani oil products to Armenia.
Despite the progress, he said Baku maintained its stance on Armenia's constitution.
"The form of constitutional changes is Armenia's internal matter," said Hajiyev.
"What is important for Azerbaijan is that the provisions we regard as territorial claims against our country are formally removed, whether through the adoption of a new constitution or another legal mechanism."
"Once that issue is resolved, we believe there will be no obstacles to signing the final peace agreement," he said.
‘Serious and positive signals’
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said he wants to hold a referendum to change the constitution and that a draft of the new charter will be published by the end of this year.
But his Civil Contract party lacks the constitutional majority in parliament needed to call the referendum, and it is unclear whether the opposition will join him.
Hajiyev said publication of the draft alone would not be sufficient to sign a peace deal.
He also said Azerbaijan had received "serious and positive signals" from the United States that construction work on a planned Washington-backed transport corridor in the region could begin this autumn.
The proposed 43-kilometre corridor would cut across Armenia and give Azerbaijan direct access to its exclave of Nakhchivan and to Türkiye.
The route would better connect Asia to Europe at a time when Washington wants to diversify energy and trade flows away from Russia because of the war in Ukraine.
"Our position is that this should be implemented as soon as possible," Hajiyev said.
He said infrastructure extending to Azerbaijan's southwestern Zangilan region would be largely completed by the end of 2026, after which it could be connected to planned infrastructure in Armenia and Türkiye.
