ArmInfo.At the moment, there is no agreement between Yerevan and Baku on the maps, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on March 20 during the government hour in parliament, answering a question from an opposition MP, on the basis of which map it was decided that a number of villages should be transferred to Azerbaijan.
"There is an agreement on mutual recognition of territorial integrity in accordance with the Alma-Ata Declaration and there is a perception about delimiting the border between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan," Pashinyan said.
As the prime minister explained, the delimitation process does not mean establishing a new state border line, but de jure rehabilitation of the borders of the very last period of the Soviet Union . "It is by this logic that we are guided," he pointed out.
On March 18, during a meeting with residents of Voskepar, Baghanis, Kirants, Tavush region, Nikol Pashinyan said that the border demarcation commissions should decide where the border of the Republic of Armenia begins, and it should become the state border of the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan."Our policy is that we must not allow war; we must not allow war to start. And this is also the reason why we decided to clarify the border of the Republic of Armenia in these areas and we are doing this not only for the sake of the Republic of Armenia, but also specifically for the sake of the village of Voskepar, the village of Kirants, to ensure the security of these villages," the Prime Minister said.
Earlier, Baku announced that it demands the immediate "return of 4 villages" located on the border of the Tavush region of Armenia and the Gazakh region of Azerbaijan. The statement followed a meeting of the border delimitation commissions, headed by the vice-premiers of the two countries, Mher Grigoryan and Shahin Mustafayev. "As for the four non-exclave Azerbaijani villages (Baghanis Ayrim, Ashagi Eskipara, Kheyrimli and Gyzylgajili) 'occupied' by Armenia, their belonging to Azerbaijan is indisputable, and they are subject to immediate return," they stated.
Baku is also confident that within the framework of the delimitation process, "the issue of 'liberation' of four exclave villages (Yukhary Askipara, Sofulu, Barkhudarlu in the Armenian Tavush, as well as Kyarki (Armenian - Tigranashen) in the Ararat region, on the border with Nakhijevan) will be resolved." At the same time, Baku denied the statements of the Armenian authorities that Azerbaijan occupied the territory of 31 Armenian settlements in five regions with a total area of about 200 square kilometers, calling it "an unfounded statement." Some of them came under the control of Azerbaijan back in the 1990s during the first Karabakh war, others as a result of Azerbaijani aggression in 2021-2022.