Armenia hopes to sign provisions of a peace deal with Azerbaijan in the next four weeks, the country's president told Reuters, a step that could ease tensions in the conflict-ridden South Caucasus, even as Baku has signaled that the process is stalled.
The two countries have been engaged in peace talks for the past year since Azerbaijan in September 2023 retook the former breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh after 30 years of de facto independence, prompting almost its entire ethnic Armenian population of around 100,000 to flee to Armenia.
The talks have been tense, with both nations in recent weeks accusing the other of not being interested in signing a treaty to end their more than three decades of conflict that started before the two countries gained their independence from Moscow.
Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan said Yerevan was hopeful Azerbaijan would sign 16 of the articles before the COP29 climate change conference that Baku is hosting on November 11-22.