Pashinyan proposes signing peace deal with Baku and dissolving Minsk Group at the same time

By Lia Avagyan

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan proposed that Armenia and Azerbaijan simultaneously sign a peace treaty and jointly request the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group. In his speech at the National Assembly on April 15, he framed the move as a symbolic closure of the decades-long Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and a necessary step toward lasting peace in the South Caucasus.

"We understand Azerbaijan’s position on the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group," Pashinyan said. "If we are indeed closing the page on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict- and we are- then why maintain a format that was created to resolve it?" He stressed that the Minsk Group’s broader context should not be used as a pretext for future territorial claims against Armenia.

Pashinyan confirmed that the full text of a bilateral peace agreement was finalized in March 2025 and is ready for signing. The treaty would formally end decades of hostilities and establish diplomatic relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. It includes mutual recognition of territorial integrity, the non-use of force, the unblocking of regional transport routes, and a pledge to withdraw all legal claims related to past conflicts.

The OSCE Minsk Group was established in the early 1990s to mediate the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Co-chaired by France, Russia, and the United States, it facilitated negotiations for nearly three decades. However, its influence waned after the 2020 war and Azerbaijan's 2023 military offensive, which brought all of Nagorno-Karabakh under Baku’s control after the ethnic cleansing of Armenians from the region. By 2025, both Baku and Yerevan recognized that the Group had become defunct.

Another, more contentious demand from Baku is that Armenia amend its constitution. Azerbaijan objects to references in Armenia’s founding documents that suggest a claim to Nagorno-Karabakh. Pashinyan indicated support for drafting a new constitution, though such a process will take time and would require a national referendum.