September 21 is celebrated as International Peace Day worldwide. The United Nations' motto for peace this year is "Invest in peace: for everyone, everywhere, every day." According to the UN, peace is not merely the absence of war, but a state where people live in safety and dignity, with opportunities and cooperation.
This understanding is particularly noteworthy in the context of the political and military processes Azerbaijan has undergone in recent years. For Azerbaijan, the topic of peace is not a theoretical or unfamiliar diplomatic concept. The country has experienced over 30 years of conflict, occupation, war, and finally, a post-conflict period. Therefore, our state's vision of peace is not limited to the principle of "no war."
In our country's official position, peace is primarily built on the mutual recognition of sovereignty, territorial integrity, and internationally recognized borders. The main logic behind this approach is that for lasting peace, parties must accept each other's territorial integrity, exclude attempts to gain territory by force, and transition their relations into an interstate legal framework.
What is peace for Azerbaijan?
In our state's approach, peace is not a post-war void, but the beginning of a new system of regional relations. In this regard, the Joint Declaration signed by the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Washington on August 8, 2025, marked an important political stage. In the document, the parties expressed their positions on the inviolability of international borders, the inadmissibility of using force to acquire territory, and the establishment of future neighborly relations. Within the framework of the same meeting, the agreed text of the agreement on peace and the establishment of interstate relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia was initialed.
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The main point to note here is that peace is not limited to political documents. Because while the signing of a peace agreement between two countries is important, the real test of lasting peace begins thereafter: border delimitation, building mutual trust, opening transport and communication links, establishing economic relations, and societies transitioning from long-term hostility to cooperation. In other words, we can say that signing peace is not the same as building peace.
Azerbaijan considers peace the future of the region
Another important aspect of Azerbaijan's approach is that peace and regional communications and economic cooperation are inseparable. The 2025 Washington Joint Declaration noted that the opening of communications between Azerbaijan and Armenia would serve peace, stability, and prosperity in the region. The document also reflected the issue of ensuring a connection between the main part of Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan through Armenian territory based on the principle of mutual benefit. A simple logic underlies this approach: just as it is not possible to gain from war, it is not enough to gain only political dividends from peace. Peace must affect people's lives, trade, transport, and economic relations. In this regard, Azerbaijan combines the peace agenda with the regional connectivity and cooperation agenda.
"Peace" is also a matter of security
The security component also holds a special place in Azerbaijan's vision of peace. According to official Baku's position, long-term peace cannot be ensured solely by declaring political intentions. Mutual trust and security guarantees must be formed between states. Otherwise, even if documents are signed, the risk of new tensions in the region remains. This is precisely why Azerbaijan has presented the peace process in recent years together with the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity, inviolability of borders, and mutual security. The Joint Declaration adopted in Washington also emphasized the importance of the parties moving towards a future not held captive by past conflict and stated that attempts at revenge are rejected. The political significance of this statement is that peace is not only the cessation of war but also the elimination of the psychology of war.
For Azerbaijan, peace is also the completion of the post-conflict period
Another important aspect of Azerbaijan's understanding of peace is the restoration and reconstruction process carried out in Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur. Baku presents this process not only as an infrastructure project but as one of the main elements of a new post-war stage. Along with the construction of roads, settlements, schools, hospitals, and other facilities, the return of people to their native lands also stands out as one of the important directions of the post-conflict period.
In this sense, there is an interesting point in Azerbaijan's vision of peace: peace is not only the silencing of weapons at the border but the rebuilding of life destroyed by war.
Although wars are increasing in the world, Azerbaijan offers another model for the region
This year's theme for International Peace Day is also not accidental. The UN explicitly emphasizes that in 2026, conflicts in the world have become more complex, dialogue has become difficult, and peace does not arise automatically. The organization highlights diplomacy, dialogue, and negotiations as the main tools for peace. The region where Azerbaijan is located has also not been immune to these problems for a long time. However, at the current stage, the main message of our state is that the South Caucasus should cease to be a place of long-standing confrontation and turn into a space of cooperation. In this regard, the change that has occurred in Azerbaijan-Armenia relations in recent years is important not only in the context of the relations between the two countries but also in terms of the future of the region as a whole.
Peace is no longer a result, but a process
In fact, if Azerbaijan's vision of peace were to be expressed in one sentence, it could be summarized as follows: the end of war is not the end point of peace, but its beginning. A peace agreement can create a legal framework. But for it to be lasting, political will, mutual trust, security mechanisms, resolution of border issues, functioning communication lines, and economic cooperation are needed. This is precisely the line that stands out in Azerbaijan's current approach: peace without compromising sovereignty, cooperation by ensuring security, and transforming the consequences of past conflict into a new platform for future development.
The agreements reached in Washington in August 2025 created an important stage in this direction. In its statement on the first anniversary of that meeting in August 2026, Azerbaijan also stated that the Washington documents laid the foundation for the normalization of Azerbaijan-Armenia relations and peace in the region. Now the main issue is to transform that political will into a lasting regional reality.
Because true peace is not measured only by what is written in documents. True peace arises when there is no need or interest to restart the war, when borders become a line of connection, not confrontation, and when the hostility of the past is replaced by the cooperation of the future. The main message of International Peace Day for Azerbaijan is precisely here: peace is not the absence of war, but the building of a future that makes a return to war impossible.
