Armenian and Azerbaijan leaders signal a pre -agreement of Paz within the White House | International | EUROtoday

Donald Trump has obtained this Friday on the Oval Office to the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan for the signing of a pre -agreement of peace by which Washington has interceded. It is a doc that the White House ensures that it’ll finish a thorny territorial battle, dragged for nearly 4 a long time of armed tensions and clashes between the 2 enemies within the Caucasus. The president of the United States, who hopes to extend the affect of his nation within the area, doesn’t cover his hopes of including factors, with this assembly to 3, in his ambitions to attain the Nobel Peace Prize.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinián has described the joint declaration of “revolutionary result” asserting a brand new chapter “of peace, prosperity, security and economic cooperation in the southern Caucasus.” Pahsinián has cited the passage of the Bible “Blessed are pacifiers” to reward Trump. Even extra emphatic in his reward to the US president has been his counterpart from Azerbaijan, Ilham Alíyev. “If it weren’t for President Trump and his team, Armenia and Azerbaijan would probably be again immersed in this endless negotiation process,” mentioned Alíyev. “President Trump brings peace to the Caucasus.”

Pashinián and Alíyev, who as he has identified the second, will collectively nominate Trump for the Nobel, have additionally signed financial bilateral agreements in respective conferences individually with the Republican, previous to the ceremony. “It will be a historic day for Armenia, Azerbaijan, the United States and the world,” mentioned the Republican on Thursday night time in a publication in Truth, his social community. “Many leaders have tried to end this war, without success, so far, thanks to ‘Trump’,” he wrote.

A excessive place of its administration underneath anonymity has described the pre -agreement as “the first statement of peace signed by the two countries after the end of the Cold War.” In truth, Trump has referred to the declaration of Armenia and Azerbaijan as if it have been a closed peace settlement. “Thirty -five years of death and hate, and now it will be love and success together,” he mentioned, on the Ceremony within the White House. After posing for photographers with a 3 -band handshake, the leaders have signed two copies of the peace pre -agreement.

But many questions nonetheless hit how the settlement will probably be developed and the efficient factor that can end result on the bottom. What the agency in Washington does reveal is the erosion of the affect of Russia, the previous mediator, on these former Soviet republics within the Caucasus.

One of the important thing factors that the pre -agreement tries to resolve between Baku and Ereván is the institution of a hall – recognized as far as “Zangezur runner” – by Armenian territory to attach Azerbaijan together with his najicheván enclave, positioned between Armenia and Turkey. As the White House has revealed, the settlement establishes the creation of a “Trump route for international peace and prosperity” (Tripp), which may have 43 kilometers lengthy, will join Azerbaijan and its autonomous territory by means of Armenian soil and the place the United States will get pleasure from rights for the financial growth of the world. In that corridor, Armenia would keep authorized management of that territory.

Until now, the management of the hall, the attainable routes and even their denomination had been the topic of dispute. Even neighbors Russia and Iran had expressed concern that this hall was constituted. But the aforementioned place of US administration has indicated that Trump “changed the language” and “eliminated politics in negotiations”, which has allowed an answer that can make “commercial prosperity guarantee peace.” The White House presents Tripp as a business, non -military or safety challenge.

“This is not only about Armenia. It does not only go on Azerbaijan. It goes over the entire Caucasus region, and they know that this meeting will be safer and more prosperous under President Trump,” he mentioned the excessive place of the Republican Administration.

The White House deputy spokeswoman, Anna Kelly, mentioned that the answer will permit “connectivity without obstacles” between the Azerbaijan territories “while Armenian, its sovereignty, its territorial integrity and its people and its people. Over the next months, working groups will begin working to launch the details of the agreement.

As part of the understanding, the two faced countries will sign a joint letter to withdraw from the Minsk group from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the mediation instrument co -chaired by Russia, France and the United States that had tried to resolve the conflict around the Karabaj Nagorno enclave since 1997.

Between 1988, when the Soviet Union entered the end of the Cold War, and 1994, the Christian Armenia and the Muslim Azerbaijan faced themselves in skirmishes and two wars by Nagorno Karabaj, an internationally recognized territory as part of Azerbaijan, but where more than 100,000 people of Ethnician Armenia lived.

Russia loses influence

Russia headed mediation efforts between the two neighbors and enemies, without ever reaching a definitive solution to a conflict that has cost more than 40,000 people. In 2020 both took arms again, after an offensive from Azerbaijan, in a confrontation that resulted in the deployment of almost 2,000 Russian soldiers to guarantee peace.

But the Russian invasion of Ukraine and war in that country distracted Moscow’s attention. In 2023 Azerbaijan launched a new offensive to take control of all Nagorno Karabaj and expel Armenian residents. The Russian contingent began its withdrawal in April last year, while Baku has been taking steps to settle in the enclave.

For the United States, the agreement represents an important diplomatic triumph, which allows it to increase its influence in the south of the Caucasus and develop and strengthen commercial routes that avoid Russia and Iran. The White House also considers that a peace pact could give way to negotiations for the entry of Azerbaijan in Abraham’s agreements for the normalization of relations between Muslim countries and Israel, although Baku already maintains excellent strategic ties, in the military, energy and commercial sector, with that country, where he opened an embassy in 2023.

La Paz between Armenia and Azerbaijan could also give a boost, as Washington expects, to the process of normalization between Turkey and Armenia, including the possible reopening of the border that they share and that is closed to Cal and sing from the nineties.

But, regardless of the Optimism of the White House, there are nonetheless necessary obstacles to peace. Bakú calls for that Ereván withdraw from his structure all language that may be perceived as a territorial declare of Nagorno Karabaj. Armenia claims the discharge of his prisoners within the neighbor’s territory: Azerbaijan retains no less than 23 Armenians, together with eight excessive political and army positions of Nagorno Karabaj. And the events haven’t but agreed on the official demarcation of their borders.