Kazakhstan says it is ready to host peace talks between Azerbaijan, Armenia

By Efe Ozkan

ISTANBUL (AA) - Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Monday expressed his country's readiness to host peace talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Tokayev's remarks came during a phone conversation with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, according to a statement from Kazakhstan’s presidency.

Aliyev said that the proposal to have these talks in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana is “acceptable” to Baku, according to an Azerbaijani presidential statement.

In May, Kazakhstan hosted a meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries in the city of Almaty.

Relations between Baku and Yerevan have remained tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

Most of the territory was liberated by Azerbaijan during a 44-day war in the fall of 2020, which ended after a Russian-brokered peace agreement that opened the door to normalization and the demarcation of their border.

Last September, Azerbaijan established full sovereignty in Karabakh following an "anti-terrorist operation" after which separatist forces in the region surrendered.