There must be legal grounds for changes to state borders of Armenia -  minister

ArmInfo.There must be legal grounds for changes to the state borders of Armenia.  Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of the Republic of Armenia Gnel Sanosyan told reporters on October 13, answering a question about Azerbaijan's claims to 8 enclaves located on the territory of Armenia.

According to the minister, to discuss the issue of territories it is  necessary to have relevant maps and legal grounds at hand. " And yet,  not all maps can be viewed. It's one thing when we talk about maps  that experts refer to, and quite another when we talk about maps  directly related to the state border," Sanosyan noted, adding that  claims to any territory, including enclaves, must have legal grounds.

The minister noted that the issue of enclaves is raised quite often,  and the answer was given by the country's officials who are  participating in the negotiation process. "I do not participate in  them, but I suppose that if two states recognize each other's  territorial integrity, then they must carry out delimitation of  borders followed by demarcation, as a result of which the borders  will be clarified," Sanosyan noted, calling on media representatives  not to forget about the existence of such a large enclave as the  village of Artsvashen, which is under Azerbaijani occupation. As part  of the process of delimitation and demarcation of borders, issues  related to roads will also be resolved, the minister noted.

On October 10, in an interview with the Public Television of Armenia,  Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said that  Azerbaijan is raising the issue of eight villages.  Armenia, in turn,  is speaking of another eight villages as well - Berkaber, Aigovit,  Vazashen, Paravakar and others, in the same Tavush region. 

Pashinyan said, that in raising the issue of enclaves, one had to   show maps to substantiate the claims.  "When Azerbaijan says that it  recognizes the territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia, we  want to understand what they mean by the term "the Republic of  Armenia", because some people conclude from their speech that they do  not mean 29,800 square kilometers, but a part of the territory.  "I  want to make a very important record that this principle was agreed  upon by myself and the President of Azerbaijan in the presence of  Charles Michel in Brussels, but the problem remains that until now  the President of Azerbaijan has not made a public statement about  recognizing the territorial integrity of 29,800 sq km of Armenia. We  are told that Armenia has unilaterally recognized the territorial  integrity of Azerbaijan. There can be no question of one-sidedness  here, 86 600 and 29 800 are twin numbers; to know one one must know  the other. "I want to urge those who may not have read all the  subtleties to be a little more careful about the criticisms of this  issue," Mr Pashinyan said.

The Armenian government's task now is to prevent escalation because  of Armenia's refusing to discuss certain issues.  "We must be ready  to settle issues, which, however, must be transparent and  well-founded for out public," Mr Pashinyan said.