Armenia Says Azerbaijan Responds to Peace Proposals, Big Gaps Remain

09/14/2023

Azerbaijan has sent new proposals to Armenia in their longstanding attempts to reach a peace deal, but big gaps remain between the two sides, Armenia's state news agency quoted the country's foreign minister as saying on Wednesday. 

Armenia also submitted a proposal of its own for a withdrawal from border areas of troops from both sides. 

Armenia's Foreign Ministry—in a statement reported by local media—later issued the proposal for a "reciprocal withdrawal of troops on the state border between Armenia and Azerbaijan.” 

The statement said any such action would be based on maps drawn up in 1975, when both countries were Soviet republics. 

There appeared to be no immediate response to the offer from Azerbaijan. 

The two countries, since the Soviet collapse, have fought two wars in the past 30 years over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but run by ethnic Armenian authorities. 

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