Turkey, Azerbaijan hope for ‘lasting peace’ in South Caucasus

An Azerbaijan’s sapper inspects an area in the village of Ashaghi Askipara, one of the four villages Armenia recently returned to Azerbaijani control under border demarcation deal between the Caucasus rivals — who fought two wars for control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, on May 28, 2024. FILE PHOTO/Agence France-Presse

ISTANBUL — Turkey and its regional ally Azerbaijan on Tuesday reaffirmed their commitment to “lasting peace and stability” in the South Caucasus region.

Top diplomats from Turkey and Azerbaijan held talks in the capital Ankara on several sticking issues including ongoing peace negotiations between Baku and Yerevan.

“In our meeting today, we reaffirmed our common desire for lasting peace and stability to be established in the South Caucasus as soon as possible,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said at a news conference with his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov.

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“In this context, we evaluated the progress made in the ongoing peace process between Azerbaijan and Armenia,” he said.

The Caucasus rivals fought two wars — in the 1990s and in 2020 — over control of Nagorno-Karabakh, which had been predominantly populated by ethnic Armenians.

Years of diplomacy between the Caucasus rivals Azerbaijan and Armenia had failed to reach a breakthrough, but negotiations have resumed after Baku last year won a decisive victory in seizing the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

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In July, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Armenia and Azerbaijan were on the brink of an agreement for a “dignified” peace as he brought the arch-foes’ foreign ministers together for talks on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Washington.

Bayramov said Tuesday that Baku’s 2023 victory over Nagorno-Karabakh generated a new reality as well as new opportunities in the Caucasus.

Azerbaijan recaptured the mountainous enclave in a one-day offensive that led to the exodus of its entire Armenian population — more than 100,000 people.

“Azerbaijan believes that there’s a historic chance for lasting peace in the region,” he said.

Turkey, a close ally of Azerbaijan, backed its campaign to drive ethnic Armenian forces from Nagorno-Karabakh.

Diplomatic relations between Turkey and Armenia — the two neighbours who share a painful history — were severed over a number of issues including the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The Ankara talks come on the heels of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Baku last week, his first to the oil-rich country since Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022.

Russia has for decades been a traditional mediator between Baku and Yerevan but has in the last two years been bogged down by its Ukraine campaign.