There is still no agreement on maps - Pashinyan

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.