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Azerbaijan still hopes to conclude a peace treaty with Armenia by the end of the year, assistant to the president of Azerbaijan Hikmet Hajiyev said in an interview with TASS.

"We still hope for the signing of a peace treaty before the end of this year and call on the Armenian political leadership to take the main step - officially, with their signature under the peace treaty, to record recognition of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and to commit to refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of our country in the future," he said, referring to the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) issue.

According to the assistant to the head of the republic, it is important that Armenia abandons the policy of financing "separatism" in Azerbaijan. "As for the activities of international mediators, we highly appreciate their contribution to the normalization of Azerbaijani-Armenian relations," he added.

Azerbaijan occupied large swaths of Artsakh territories during the 2020 war, forcing over 40,000 indigenous Armenians to flee their homes. The people of Artsakh have been living under Baku's brutal blockade for nearly 10 months now, without any access to food, medicine and other essential goods.