The peoples of Armenia and Azerbaijan have accepted and defended peace, realizing that they cannot change the past but can change the present and the future. Nikol Pashinyan

A solemn ceremony for the presentation of the Hessian Peace Prize to Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan took place at the Parliament of the Federal State of Hesse in Wiesbaden.

At the entrance to the Parliament, the Prime Minister was welcomed by Daniela Sommer, Vice President of the Parliament of the Federal State of Hesse, and Karl Startzacher, Chairman of the Board of the Albert Oßwald Foundation. Nikol Pashinyan then signed the guest book.

During the award ceremony, speeches were delivered by Serap Güler, Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany; Karl Startzacher, Chairman of the Board of the Albert Oßwald Foundation; and Michaela Jäckel-Oßwald, a member of the Foundation’s Board and daughter of Albert Oßwald.

In their speeches, they referred to the decision to award the Peace Prize to the Prime Minister of Armenia and highly commended his efforts to establish peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, advance democratic reforms in Armenia, and contribute to the development of relations with the European Union. The speakers also presented Prime Minister Pashinyan’s biography and career as a journalist, editor, parliamentarian, leader of Armenia’s popular, Velvet, non-violent revolution, and Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was then presented with the certificate of the Hessian Peace Prize, following which the Prime Minister delivered a speech.

In particular, Nikol Pashinyan stated:

“Dear Ms. Sommer,

Dear Mr. Startzacher,

Honorable Members of the Hessian Landtag,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great honor for me to receive the Hessian Peace Prize. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the Board of Trustees of the Albert Oßwald Foundation for this high recognition.

On August 8, 2025, peace was established between Armenia and Azerbaijan as a result of the Washington Peace Summit and the joint declaration adopted there by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and myself, which was signed in the presence of U.S. President Donald Trump.

It is important that peace was established not only on paper and in the media, but also on the ground, allowing the peoples of Armenia and Azerbaijan to experience things differently.

The genuine path to peace began in the spring of 2024, when, for the first time in our post-Soviet history, a delimitation process took place between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Since then, there have been no fatalities on either side as a result of border incidents, which is unprecedented since the early 1990s.

In 2024, Armenia and Azerbaijan succeeded in signing and ratifying the first document of interstate significance—the regulation on the joint activities of the commissions on the delimitation and demarcation of the state border between the two countries.

This document establishes that the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration serves as the fundamental principle for the delimitation and demarcation of the border between our two countries.

This means that Armenia and Azerbaijan recognize each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, corresponding to the territories of the two Soviet republics.

This is also the principle enshrined in the Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and Interstate Relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which our foreign ministers initialed during the Washington Peace Summit.

The initialing of the aforementioned agreement and the adoption of the Washington Peace Declaration marked a historic breakthrough in Armenia-Azerbaijan relations.

On this occasion, I would like to express my appreciation to U.S. President Donald Trump, whose personal engagement and leadership were of decisive importance.

I would also like to express my appreciation to President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, who is equally deserving of this award.

I would also like to express my gratitude to the peoples of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Despite the difficulties, human losses, and suffering caused by the conflict, they have accepted and defended peace, realizing that they cannot change the past but can change the present and the future—choosing the prospect of peace, prosperity, and cooperation instead of what seemed like an endless conflict.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The TRIPP project—the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity—is another important outcome of the Washington Peace Summit. Daily work is currently underway to implement it.

This project will open Armenia’s communication routes to Azerbaijan and vice versa, although, in fact, since November 2025, Azerbaijan’s railway has already been open to Armenia via the territory of Georgia, and bilateral trade between Armenia and Azerbaijan has already begun.”

The TRIPP project envisages the restoration of the railway in Armenia, as well as the construction of roads, pipelines, and power transmission lines that will serve not only domestic or regional, but also international and transit purposes, creating new opportunities for connectivity along the East-West and North-South routes.

The implementation of this project will also contribute to peaceful exchanges and contacts between the peoples of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Such exchanges are no less important than signed and ratified documents, or high-level meetings and agreements.

The peoples of Armenia and Azerbaijan have centuries-old experience of peaceful coexistence, which has been almost forgotten during the more than 30 years of conflict.

And our task is not, in fact, to revive the past, but to transform these traditions into a new era of interstate, good-neighborly relations—while respecting each other’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political independence.