Ilham Aliyev: Baku and Yerevan to definitely reach formal peace this year

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that Azerbaijan and Armenia will have formal peace this year.

In an interview with France 24 TV channel, he stressed that Armenia’s constitution, which contains territorial claims to Karabakh, should be changed.

"There will be no signing of a peace agreement. I would divide normalization from a formal peace agreement because normalization is already taking place. As I said, all these positive developments show that. But the Armenian constitution, which was adopted a long time ago during the times of the occupation of Garabagh, contains the reference to the Declaration of Independence of Armenia, which contains the paragraph that so-called Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia should unite. So this is a territorial claim to Azerbaijan," Ilham Aliyev said.

He recalled that Baku's position for many years, since the end of the Second Garabagh War, has been very clear.

"This should be changed. And as far as I know, Armenia is planning to hold a referendum. And as soon as it is done, there will be no obstacles to the formal signing of a peace agreement. But again, I'd like to underline that for Azerbaijan, peace has been achieved. The normalization process is moving successfully, and I hope that as soon as these legal formalities are done, we will have formal peace," Ilham Aliyev said.

The head of state stressed the significance of the Washington trilateral summit for the normalization of Baku-Yerevan ties. The Azerbaijani leader noted that a historic document was signed at this meeting, held in August 2025, and expressed confidence that all this will ultimately lead to complete peace and the full normalization of relations in the near future.

"I think so, because the signing of this historic document at the White House, in the presence of the U.S. President, who, by the way, also signed the Joint Declaration as a witness, means that the conflict is over and that we have entered a period of peace, which I hope will last forever," Ilham Aliyev said.

He noted that since that time, more than six months have passed, and they have a very quiet situation on the border with Armenia.

"No more shootings, no victims, no wounded. Azerbaijan unilaterally lifted the restrictions on the transit of goods to Armenia, and we also started supplying critical oil products to Armenia, which actually marks the beginning of our trade relations," Ilham Aliyev said.

According to him, peace has already been achieved, all that remains is to complete certain formalities.

"So we can see that peace has already been achieved. There are certain formalities in order to sign a final peace agreement, but along with the declaration, which you mentioned, the foreign ministers of both countries in Washington also initialed the text of the peace agreement. So for me, it is done. I think the Prime Minister of Armenia shares the same opinion. We are just learning to live in peace, and it's a very good feeling," Ilham Aliyev said.