Delays in signing an Armenia-Azerbaijan peace agreement open the prospects that the process may be derailed as a result of domestic politics. Next month, Yerevan will go to the polls to indirectly elect a new mayor. The parliamentary opposition is boycotting the vote, and a large number of voters remain apathetic or undecided, but the vote can still be seen as demonstrative enough ahead of the 2026 national parliamentary elections.

“Today, the media in both Armenia and Azerbaijan, and also among those niche market publications based abroad that report on the region, amplify the negative and nearly always ignore any positive developments or glimmers of hope,” writes Onnik James Krikorian in this op-ed for commonspace.eu.

Many consider that negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, “nearly three years after the start of the 2020 Karabakh War, are at a make or break point,” writes Onnik James Krikorian for commonspace.eu.

“It is also too early to talk about ‘culinary diplomacy’ in the Karabakh conflict, sometimes also referred to as ‘gastrodiplomacy,’ though countless state banquets demonstrate that is by no means a new concept,” writes Onnik James Krikorian in this op-ed for commonspace.eu.

“Time is not on the side of peace between [Armenia and Azerbaijan] and never has been,” writes Onnik James Krikorian for commonspace.eu. […] He adds that “in such an environment, it is imperative for local and international actors to become proactive again, with absolutely no space for complacency or hope for a new but unsustainable status quo to emerge.”

Commonspace yesterday published my third opinion piece on a potential Armenia-Azerbaijan peace agreement – or rather on what needs to happen and what should be avoided. Given some recent claims – including a rather baffling one that the cost of petrol would be reduced by half if Yerevan and Baku signed a treaty and Azerbaijani petrol was imported to Armenia – it was one that had to be written.