Azerbaijan is refusing to acknowledge that it is occupying territories within Armenia, among them 31 areas that are not part of the so-called enclave element that has been delaying the demarcation and delimitation of the border between the two countries.
As a result, Azerbaijan is demanding unilateral territorial concessions from Armenia, Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan, who co-chairs the border delimitation commission along with his Azerbaijani and Russian counterparts, told Azatutyun.am’s Armenian Service on Wednesday.
Official Baku regularly accuses Armenia of occupying “eight Azerbaijani villages” and says their so-called “liberation” is a necessary condition for a peace deal between the two countries.
The reference is made to border areas — or enclaves — within Armenia that were controlled by Azerbaijan during the Soviet Union. In the 1990s, Azerbaijan seized a larger Armenian enclave, as well as large swaths of agricultural areas adjacent to this and several other border communities in Armenia.
In 2021 and 2022, Azerbaijani forces breached Armenia’s sovereign border and have since occupied more territories, from where they have launched military attacks against Armenian positions, the most recent of which took place last month and claimed four Armenian soldiers.
The Armenian government says that a total of 200 square kilometers of Armenia’s internationally recognized territory adjacent to 31 Armenian communities is now being controlled by Azerbaijan. Baku continues to deny the occupation of any Armenian territory.
“Of course, we will not take a single step back from our positions [occupied in] both May 2021 and September 2022 because that border must be established,” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said recently. What is more, he demanded that Armenia first withdraw from four of the “Azerbaijani villages” that were not enclaves.
“Azerbaijan is claiming Baghanis, Ayrum, Aghash (Nerkin) Voskepar, Kheyrimli, Kizil Hajili, while refusing to accept that the vital territories of 31 non-enclave settlements of Armenia are under Azerbaijani occupation,” Grigoryan’s office told Azatutyun.am.
These territories demanded by Azerbaijan are in Armenia’s Tavush Province and are mostly uninhabited. For example, the interstate road to Georgia passes near Nerkin Voskepar village.
Yerevan has rejected Baku’s claims and continues to insist that any border demarcation must advance based on the 1991 Alma Ata Treaty that delineates the borders following the breakup of the Soviet Union. Azerbaijan thus far has rejected this proposal.
