Today, key issue on Armenia`s political agenda should be future of  Tigranashen - expert

ArmInfo.Today, the key issue on Armenia's political agenda should be the future of Tigranashen. However, as we see, the ongoing discussions around it seem to have been relegated to the background. This is what political scientist Vahe Davtyan writes in his article. 

"One could spend a long time calculating how many square kilometers  Tigranashen occupies, how many Artsvashen occupies, and ultimately  even arrive at a 'positive' territorial balance for Armenia. But  geopolitics is not a cadastre. Tigranashen's value lies not in its  area, but in its geographic location. By handing over Tigranashen,  Armenia is effectively granting Baku sovereign territory at the  immediate junction of the Yerevan-Vayots Dzor-Syunik-Iran strategic  communications network. About 4.5 kilometers of the M2 interregional  highway runs here. In other words, the problem isn't the loss of the  village, but the creation of additional vulnerability to its own  territorial communications," the political scientist noted, wondering  what Armenia would gain in return.

And in return, he said, the republic would gain Artsvashen-a large  territory, but surrounded by Azerbaijani territory and cut off from  Armenia's main communications system. In other words, a territorial  acquisition with very limited functional value in exchange for a  communication concession of high strategic value.

"Furthermore, the new configuration does not simplify the  Armenian-Azerbaijani border, but rather complicates it. It creates  the need for new checkpoints, special regimes, detours, security  guarantees, and constant negotiations. And all this in a context  where strategic trust between the parties is, to put it mildly, very  low. The purpose of border demarcation should be to deconflict  borders, not to create new conflict zones. Therefore, the  Tigranashen-Artsvashen issue should not be considered according to  the simplified formula of "ours is us, yours is you," but from the  perspective of geopolitical and geo-economic value.  Because 1  kilometer on a map is always 1 kilometer. In geopolitics, never,"  Vahe Davtyan emphasized.