03/22/2024 Azerbaijan (International Christian Concern) – Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated during a press conference that negotiations with Armenia are approaching a settlement.
The remarks occurred after a meeting between President Aliyev and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. Secretary Stoltenberg began an official visit to the South Caucasus region, starting with Azerbaijan on March 17 and continuing to Georgia and Armenia on March 18 and 19, respectively.
During the conference, Aliyev stated that Azerbaijan and Armenia are “closer to peace than ever before.” He credited the recent “restoration of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan” for the near breakthrough to achieving the “long-awaited peace” in the South Caucasus region.
Stoltenberg highlighted the long-standing partnership between NATO and Azerbaijan and the current contributions of the latter to the greater regional issues, citing support for Ukraine and energy and environmental initiatives. Concerning negotiations with Armenia, Stoltenberg reiterated that both countries “now have an opportunity to achieve an enduring peace” and encouraged Aliyev to “seize this opportunity.”
According to an official statement on “Relations with Azerbaijan,” “NATO has no direct role in negotiations aimed at resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. However, NATO encourages all sides to continue their efforts aimed at a peaceful resolution of the conflict.”
Conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region (known to Armenians as Artsakh) has punctuated the decades since the Caucasian states first gained independence from the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. The Nagorno-Karabakh region is an enclave internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but inhabited by ethnic Armenians until October 2023, when the breakaway Republic of Artsakh surrendered to the Azerbaijani military.
This comes on the heels of the re-election of Azerbaijani President Aliyev in February 2024, originally scheduled for October 2025 but suddenly rescheduled for December 2023. A report by International Christian Concern stated that “critics of the 2024 election have speculated that the early election date is due to Azerbaijan’s successful attack on Nagorno-Karabakh,” which “bolstered Aliyev’s popularity, initiating the urgent election.”
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