No talk about surrender of any village in Armenia`s Tavush - Nikol  Pashinyan 

ArmInfo. There has never been and cannot be any talk of surrendering any village in the Tavush region of Armenia, Armenia's Premier Nikol Pashinyan stated at his March 12 press conference, commenting on Baku's demand for the immediate "return of 4 villages" located on the border of the Tavush region of Armenia and the Gazakh region of Azerbaijan.

Baku made a corresponding statement last Saturday at the March 7  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  (Baganis Ayrim, Ashagi Eskipara, Kheyrimli and Gyzylgajili) occupied  by Armenia, their belonging to Azerbaijan is indisputable, and they  are subject to immediate release," the statement said. 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  Nakhichevan 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, the other as a result of Azerbaijani aggression in  2021-2022.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry and the office of Deputy Prime Minister  Grigoryan have not yet commented on Baku's direct demand, but before  the meeting of the border delimitation commission in Mher Grigoryan's  office they confirmed that Baku demands four villages without the  intention of withdrawing its troops from Armenian territories.

Thus, at the beginning of today's press conference, Pashinyan showed  a map of the Republic of Armenia, where, according to him, the  internationally recognized borders are de jure fixed, separately  pointing to the Artsvashen enclave. "There has never been or can be  any discussion about the surrender of any village in the Tavush  region. When the names of villages were announced in the Azerbaijani  press, there had never been villages with such names on the territory  of the Republic of Armenia, not only in Soviet times, but also after  it," Pashinyan noted.

He pointed out that the border that existed de jure at the time of  the collapse of the Soviet Union was confirmed by the Alma-Ata  Declaration and not only by this declaration, but also by the  agreements reached in Prague on October 6, 2022. "The Alma-Ata  Declaration became the basis for recognizing each other's borders and  mutual territorial integrity. Consequently, according to these  agreements, the former administrative border that existed during the  Soviet Union is what is on the other side of this administrative  border, conditionally, is Azerbaijan, what is on this side is  Armenia. In the process of delimitation, we must work to reproduce  this boundary in some format. We must proceed from de jure reality.  What is Armenia is Armenia, what is Azerbaijan is Azerbaijan," the  prime minister noted. At the same time, Pashinyan does not exclude  that the delimitation process could begin with the Tavush region.

According to him, during the negotiations at times the impression was  created that the parties, "taking into account certain realities,"  "despite de jure borders," but according to de facto realities, could  agree to a certain exchange of territories. But such a prospect could  distort the process and lead to additional risks, Pashinyan believes.  In this context, in his opinion, in order to avoid problems in the  future, it is more correct to build new communications so that they  pass through the de jure territory of the Republic of Armenia (the  territories claimed by Azerbaijan are located in the Tavush region.  There is an interstate highway connecting Armenia with Georgia -  through Ijevan, Noyemberyan, Bagratashen - Ed.).

Pashinyan plans to visit the Tavush region to familiarize himself  with the situation on the spot. He assured that specific decisions  have not yet been made, pointing out the need to resolve issues  within the framework of the process of de jure recognition of the  borders of Armenia, and in the future to bring de facto actions into  line with de jure realities.