Azerbaijan and Armenia are neighboring countries, but their relationship is far from diplomatic due to the Karabakh conflict.
Official governmental relations between the two countries began between 1918 and 1921, after the fall of the Russian Empire, when the First Republic of Armenia and the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan were formed.
Then, both republics became part of the Soviet Union. In 1988, with the USSR was on the brink of destruction, the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, an autonomous republic within Azerbaijan, the majority of whose population were Armenians, became worse. The Karabakh War followed soon after. In 1994, a truce was signed.
But peace has not yet been achieved between Armenia and Azerbaijan—the conflict is considered frozen, the borders of each country is closed to the other, and the relationship between them is tense.
In 2018-2019, a series of negotiations was held, mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group. in particular, agreed on a joint initiative to “prepare populations for peace,” however, no steps towards implementation were taken at that time.
