In what they said was "another brick in the wall of trust," Armenia and Azerbaijan representatives revealed to Euronews in an exclusive interview in Doha how the peace process started, and a joint future both countries should now look forward to.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have reaffirmed their commitment to work together to transform the entire landscape of the South Caucasus after decades of conflict.
In what was only recently seen as an impossible peace and in a region long marred by war, the two countries found common ground not just to reach peace, but to work together for a decisive economic boost of the Eurasian space.
For the first time ever, the key negotiators representing both countries’ leaderships sat down in a joint, exclusive interview with Euronews in Doha to reveal how the peace process started between the two former foes and how both countries have kept adding “another brick in the wall of trust”, moving on towards a vigorous economic cooperation that is reshaping the Eurasian space, now that they have put the tragic chapter of the wars behind them.
Hikmet Hajiev, assistant to the president of Azerbaijan and Armen Grigoryan, secretary of Security Council of Armenia, told Euronews they started their talks in 2020, after the last confrontation between the two countries, supported by the European Union and culminating with the historic peace agreement between Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan secured by US President Donald Trump.
Sitting next to his counterpart for the first time in a public interview, Hajiev said the two sides had “a good chance to meet” in Brussels after which the two countries’ leaderships decided to move towards peace and “put aside disagreements that we had together”.
Grigoryan continued by telling Euronews that “the leaderships have been thinking about how to bring peace and stability to the region” which then led to the discussions on “how to institutionalise the peace and move forward”.
“The success is great and we are celebrating it,” the Armenian representative told Euronews.
'Peace is like a strategic comodity'
“In all conflicts, sides don't trust each other. But we have been working towards this. As the famous song said, it’s another brick in the wall, in the positive sense of that quote. We have been working towards that, trying to build that wall of trust, trying to to move in that direction,” Grigoryan added.
Azerbaijan’s representative added that the joint peace process is a “success story, in the global context of conflicts and wars.” As “this chapter of the conflict is closed, with real peace on the ground”, Azerbaijan and Armenia are embarking together on a massive economic expansion of the region for the common benefit of the two nations.
“We are sure that the implementation of regional economic projects will increase interdependency and strengthen peace and also economic benefits for both societies," Armenia’s representative said.
“We are moving in that direction and the proof of that also is that me and Hikmet are sitting together in your studio here in Doha,” Grigoryan told Euronews next to Hajiev.
Both speakers underlined that the current peace process is for “generations to come”, that peace is “irreversible”, and that both countries are working on what they both called “confidence-building measures” for both nations to engage, even if “it requires a lot of hard work from both countries and societies” after decades of war.
The transformation of the region is now both countries’ objective, as “peace is like a strategic commodity,” they agreed.
“The big, beautiful deal reached in Washington”, as Grigoryan called it, will bring the implementation of the so-called Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) between the two countries which “will completely change the transport map of the Eurasian continent”, Hajiev said.
Grigoryan said the project implementation is now being intensively discussed with the United States.
“I hope it will be very soon. And after that the whole technical process will start and we will work on that direction to unblock the region to open the trip, which is a very huge and very important historical project in our region. So we we continue to work on that direction,” the Armenian representative said in the Euronews exclusive interview.
The two negotiators concluded that the war was over, that peace must be “eternal” for future generations, and that both countries should now look toward a joint future.