One year ago, on August 8, Yerevan and Baku signed a preliminary peace agreement at the White House. The document, signed in the presence of the U.S. president, was deemed historic by both parties, and in the months that followed, they claimed that peace between the two former enemies was effectively established.
In Washington, the initiative named after the U.S. president was also announced — the project “Trump's Path to International Peace and Prosperity” (TRIPP). This U.S.-backed initiative will connect Azerbaijan with its exclave Nakhchivan through the territory of Armenia.
Over the past year, there have been no shots fired at the border, no casualties, and Armenia and Azerbaijan have begun trading, albeit unilaterally for now, but many questions remain unresolved.
When will the peace agreement be signed?
One year after the Washington summit, it is unclear when the 17-point peace agreement, under which Armenia and Azerbaijan committed to respect each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity, will be signed.
Immediately after the preliminary signing, the president of Azerbaijan reaffirmed Baku's precondition: the document will be signed when Armenia changes its Constitution to remove the reference to the Declaration of Independence.
Before the preliminary signing of the peace agreement, Armenia had already agreed to other preconditions from Azerbaijan — to dissolve the OSCE Minsk Group, which had been engaged in the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement for 30 years, to refrain from international lawsuits against each other, and to refrain from deploying third-country forces at the borders.
Will the 19 Armenian prisoners return home?
The peace agreement did not resolve the issue of Armenian prisoners. After the 44-day war in 2020 and the military aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023, 19 Armenian prisoners continue to be held in Azerbaijani prisons.
Unfinished border demarcation and occupied Armenian territories
Armenia and Azerbaijan still need to demarcate their nearly 1,000-kilometer common border. The process stalled in the spring of 2024 after demarcating about 12 kilometers in Tavush.
“Trump's Path” — part of the corridor connecting Central Asia to Europe
One of the biggest achievements of last year's Washington summit was the agreement on “Trump's Path,” which will provide land connectivity between Azerbaijan and its exclave Nakhchivan through Armenia's southern Syunik region.
