The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has welcomed progress towards normalising relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan while renewing four resolutions reflecting Azerbaijan’s positions on the conflict. The decisions were adopted at the organisation’s 52nd Council of Foreign Ministers session in Baghdad on 17-18 October, alongside the Baghdad Declaration.

The declaration welcomes progress in the peace process, particularly the initialling of the Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and Inter-State Relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. It also calls on Armenia to remove remaining legal and political obstacles to the agreement’s signing and urges OIC member states to support demining efforts in territories Azerbaijan describes as liberated from occupation. Azerbaijan was represented at the session by Deputy Foreign Minister Yalchin Rafiyev, who addressed the normalisation process and Baku’s priorities for its upcoming OIC presidency. The also included the re-adoption, with amendments, of four resolutions concerning Azerbaijan.

The resolutions address the consequences of what their titles call “the aggression of the Republic of Armenia against the Republic of Azerbaijan”, economic assistance to Azerbaijan, the destruction and desecration of Islamic historical and cultural heritage in Azerbaijani territories, and solidarity with the victims of the 1992 Khojaly massacre. Armenia has previously objected to similar OIC formulations. Following the organisation’s June 2025 ministerial session in Istanbul, the Armenian Foreign Ministry the declaration and Azerbaijan-proposed resolutions as “distorted and extremely one-sided”. Yerevan stated it was ready to sign the peace agreement without delay and argued that the OIC’s treatment of cultural heritage overlooked damage to Armenian heritage under Azerbaijani control. Armenia also disputed the framing of preconditions for signing the agreement, saying it had proposed constructive solutions to outstanding issues.

The Khojaly resolution concerns the killing of Azerbaijani civilians during the 1992 conflict. While the Armenian side does not deny that civilians were killed, its account has disputed the circumstances, claiming that a humanitarian corridor was provided and alleging that Azerbaijani forces opened fire on people fleeing the town. These competing accounts remain politically sensitive, and the OIC’s resolution adopts the framing advanced by Azerbaijan.