Thursday, February 15 2024 11:56

ArmInfo.Azerbaijani troops do not retreat from the territories of 31 villages of Armenia, Armenia's  Premier Nikol Pashinyan stated at a Cabinet meeting on February 15. 

"You have certainly noticed that Azerbaijan regularly talks, as it  puts it, about the territories of 4 villages, at the same time  refusing to accept that the vital territories of 31 non-enclave  villages of the Republic of Armenia are under Azerbaijani occupation.  That is, this 4/31 applies to non-enclave villages.

"Our position on this situation is very constructive. We say that in  order for the troops to move back from their current positions, it is  necessary to reproduce the Armenia-Azerbaijan border on the map and  on the ground, and to withdraw the troops of the two countries to the  border line. That is, after the reproduction of the border, if it  turns out that there are troops ahead of that line, both sides should  withdraw. In other words, if there are troops from both sides ahead  of the border line, they will have to retreat to the already  demarcated border.

"Official Baku is trying to formulate this situation in such a way  that the Azerbaijani troops do not retreat from the territories of 31  villages of Armenia in any way. This is not a constructive position.  And again, on behalf of Armenia, I reaffirm the readiness of the  Republic of Armenia to go to concrete solutions, the principles of  which have already been agreed.

"What principles are we talking about? The agreement publicly  recorded in writing on international platforms that Armenia and  Azerbaijan recognize each other's territorial integrity on the basis  of the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration, and the Alma-Ata Declaration should  be the political basis of the border delimitation process. This means  that we are left with, essentially, technical work to do: reproduce  on maps and on the ground the de jure existing border between the  Armenian SSR and Azerbaijani SSR as of 1991, by highlighting their  legal bases and resolving the issue. The issue of the so-called  exclave/enclaves should also be addressed on the same principle. For  example, to determine the territory of Artsvashen, it is necessary to  draw its border based on legal documents, and as a result of further  negotiations, solve this issue with some formula.

"But Azerbaijan regularly avoids such solutions, trying to follow the  path of localization. We even agree to this option and carry out the  demarcation even region by region, reproducing the border in each  sector, and then carry out the adjustment of the positioning of the  troops according to the reproduced border, and move on to the next  sector, leaving the issues of exclaves to the very last stage,"  Armenia's premier said.