Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated on Sunday that his country is "closer than ever" to reaching a peace agreement with Armenia, following Azerbaijan's recovery of the Karabakh region from the ethnic Armenian majority about six months ago, which led to a mass exodus of Armenians. Aliyev made his comments after meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Baku, according to a statement published on the Azerbaijani president's website: "We are currently in an active phase of peace negotiations with Armenia."
Stoltenberg, according to a statement on the NATO website, noted, "I appreciate what you say about being closer to a peace agreement than ever before. I can only encourage you to seize this opportunity to reach a lasting peace agreement with Armenia." In December, the two neighboring countries in the South Caucasus issued a joint statement expressing their desire to achieve a peace agreement and have since held numerous discussions, including two days of negotiations in Berlin in February.
Armenia, a Christian nation, and Azerbaijan, a majority Muslim country, first went to war over the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region in 1988. After decades of hostility, Azerbaijan regained control of Karabakh in September, which had been under the control of the ethnic Armenian majority since the 1990s, despite its international recognition as part of Azerbaijan. The attack prompted most of the area's 120,000 Armenians to flee to neighboring Armenia. Armenia described the attack as ethnic cleansing, while Azerbaijan denied this, arguing that those who fled could have remained and integrated into Azerbaijan.
The key points for reaching a peace treaty include border delineation and the establishment of regional transport corridors across both territories. Armenia has raised the issue of determining control over areas concentrated with ethnic groups on both sides of the border.
