'Step toward peace' or rewarding ethnic cleansing?: Experts react to Trump's Armenia-Azerbaijan deal

U.S. President Donald Trump (C) joins hands with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (L), and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan (R) during a signing ceremony in the State Dining Room of the White House on Aug. 8, 2025, in Washington, D.C. The signed agreement is intended to bring an end to the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan that has lasted for decades. | Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

President Donald Trump and leaders from Armenia and Azerbaijan celebrated the signing of a peace deal aimed at ending decades of conflict, which the Armenian National Committee of America accused of rewarding Azerbaijan's ethnic cleansing of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Trump hosted Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at the White House on Friday for a peace summit, where the two countries in the South Caucasus signed agreements with each other and the United States.

As part of the deal, Armenia, which is believed to be the first Christian nation dating back to 301 A.D., has agreed to allow a transit corridor through its territory, named the "Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity." The U.S. will develop the route, connecting Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan exclave, which are separated by a 20-mile-wide patch of Armenian territory. The corridor will operate under Armenian law.

Continued below.