Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov made the announcement earlier in the day, saying that Armenia must now press ahead with changing its constitution.
“The process of negotiations on the text of the peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia has already been completed,” Bayramov told journalists, according to Azerbaijani news agencies.
“The work on the text has been completed,” he said. “At the next stage, territorial claims against Azerbaijan should be removed from the constitution of Armenia. In addition, the Minsk Group and its remnants should be abolished.”
In an ensuing statement, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said it has notified Baku about Yerevan’s acceptance of “Azerbaijan's proposals on the two outstanding articles of the draft treaty.” It did not disclose them.
The ministry received those proposals on February 25. Baku was understood to reaffirm its demands for the two South Caucasus countries to withdraw international lawsuits filed against each other and ban the presence of third-party monitors or troops on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
The Armenian government has previously voiced reservations about both demands. It may have dropped those objections in yet another concession to Baku.
“Thus, the Peace Treaty is ready for signing,” read the Foreign Ministry statement. “The Republic of Armenia is ready to begin consultations with the Republic of Azerbaijan on the dates and venue of signing the Treaty.”
President Ilham Aliyev and other Azerbaijani leaders have repeatedly set multiple preconditions for the signing of the peace deal. The most important of them is a change of Armenia’s current constitution which Baku says contains territorial claims to Azerbaijan.
While rejecting this demand in public, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has pledged to try to enact a new Armenian constitution through a referendum. But this is unlikely to happen before June 2026.
Pashinian stated on Wednesday that the new constitution sought by him “may have a regional significance as well.” Armenian opposition leaders portrayed the statement as further proof that it is designed to satisfy Aliyev.
“I consider this a direct admission that the change of Armenia’s constitution is being carried out at the behest of an external party,” said Kristine Vartanian, parliament deputy from the opposition Hayastan alliance. “The external actors making such a demand are Turkey and Azerbaijan.”
Azerbaijan also wants Armenia to open an extraterritorial land corridor to its Nakhichevan exclave. Earlier this month, Pashinian complained about its refusal to accept his proposals regarding transport links for Nakhichevan and again suggested that Baku may be preparing the ground to attack Armenia.