One month after the historic March 13 announcement of a draft peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the signing still appears distant. No date has been set, and Baku has introduced new preconditions in the meantime. Armenia, however, hopes to convince its neighbor to sign quickly. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Tuesday, April 15, that he is "ready" to sign the agreement. "We have entered the discussion phase for the signing of the agreement. I have declared that, on behalf of the Armenian people, I am ready to put my signature," he said before Parliament in Yerevan.

"Never before have we been so close to peace and stability," Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan lauded the day before on Turkish channel NTV, during the Antalya Diplomatic Forum in Turkey. "Let's evaluate what has happened. This is an unprecedented event, a historic event," he said in reference to the draft peace agreement. "We can now immediately start consultations to define the place and time, the concrete date for signing this agreement."

The announcement of this forthcoming agreement was met with enthusiasm by Washington, Brussels and several European leaders, particularly French President Emmanuel Macron. "The fact that negotiations on the peace agreement are completed is, in itself, a positive step forward," said Richard Giragosian, director of the Regional Studies Center in Yerevan. "The peace agreement is closer, but not close enough," he said.

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