Armenia Officially Agrees to Cede Four Tavush Villages to Azerbaijan

Pashinyan’s Office Calls Decision “Unprecedented.” “For the first time, there will be a demarcated state border between our countries.”

Following a meeting of the commission on the delimitation of borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan on Friday, Yerevan officially agreed to cede four villages in the Tavush province to Azerbaijan.

For months, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has been signaling Yerevan’s willingness to relinquish these villages, saying that according to documents drawn up in 1991, those villages are not part of Armenia’s sovereign territory, essentially fulfilling Baku’s demands for the “immediate return” of the villages.

The delimitation commission, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Shahin Mustafayev, decided on Friday that the four villages in question, Baghanis Ayrum, Ashaghi Askipara, and Ghizilhajili would the first territories ceded to Azerbaijan.

Friday’s meeting did not stipulate any such territorial transfers to Armenia by Azerbaijan.

Armenia’s foreign ministry issued the statement below outlining the specifics of the decision, which includes using the 1991 Alma Ata declaration, defining the borders of the former Soviet Republics, as a basis for the border delimitation process.

• At the initial stage of the delimitation process, the Parties have preliminary agreed upon separate sections of the borderline immediately between the settlements of Baghanis (Republic of Armenia) – Baghanis Ayrum (Republic of Azerbaijan), Voskepar (Republic of Armenia) – Ashaghi Askipara (Republic of Azerbaijan), Kirants (Republic of Armenia) – Kheyrimli (Republic of Azerbaijan) and Berkaber (Republic of Armenia) – Ghizilhajili (Republic of Azerbaijan), in order to of bring them into compliance with the legally justified interrepublican border that existed within the Soviet Union at the moment of its dissolution.
• Decided that the description of these sections of the borderline will be drawn up considering the adjustment of coordinates based on the geodetic measurements on the ground, documented in a relevant Protocol-description which must be agreed upon and signed by the Parties by 15 May 2024.
• It was agreed that the Parties will apply to their Governments in order to take measures aimed at simultaneous and parallel deployment of their border services on the agreed sections of the borderline. They also agreed that until the delimitation process is fully completed, the sections of the borderline specified in the Protocol-description will be considered delimited.
• Parallelly, the Parties agreed  to complete the alignment  of the draft Regulation on the Joint Activity of the Commission on Delimitation and Border Security of the State Border between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan and the State Commission on the Delimitation of the State Border between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Armenia by 1 July 2024 and proceed with the completion of  the internal procedures and approval of the Regulations according to the procedure and the requirements of the legislation of the State parties.
• The Parties have agreed that the process of  delimitation will be based on the  Alma-Ata Declaration of 1991. The Parties have also arranged to stipulate this fundamental principle in the draft Regulation (in the future, in case the Agreement on establishment of peace and interstate relations between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan provides otherwise, the relevant clause of the Regulation will be brought into compliance with the principles as prescribed by this Agreement).
• Agreed that after the Regulation is approved by the Parties, they will arrange the order and continue the delimitation process of all the remaining sections of the border, including the issues of enclaves and exclaves.
• A protocol was signed on the meeting results. The sides agreed to set the date and the place of the next meeting of the Commissions in working order.

In written responses to inquiries by Armenpress, Pashinyan’s office said called Friday’s decision”unprecedented,” adding that “for the first time, there will be a demarcated state border between our countries, in the section of the four villages.”

Pashinyan’s office explained that the statement “means that the two commissions reproduced on a map the borders between the aforementioned villages that existed during the period of the Soviet Union, and in the next step, these borders should be clarified and expressed on the ground as well.”

“The cartographic basis of the process is the most recent topographical maps with a legal base of the USSR period, which were drawn by bodies with such authority,” Pashinyan’s office explained to Armenpress.

“The important detail is that according to the statement issued by the Commissions, the borders that existed at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union and have a legal basis are being restored. In other words, the borders that de-jure existed between Soviet Armenia and Soviet Azerbaijan. It is also important to record that the Commissions agreed that in the entire process of border delimitation between Armenia and Azerbaijan, they will rely on the 1991 Alma Ata Declaration, which is recorded as a fundamental principle of the border delimitation process. This principle should also be recorded in the Regulation of the border liberalization process, which will be agreed upon between the parties in the coming months and will undergo the necessary internal processes, including the approval process in the parliament,” added the prime minister’s office.

Pashinyan’s office emphasized that the border delimitation process and the negotiations on a peace treaty are separate processes.

“If it turns out that the [border] regulation is in conflict with a document of higher legal significance, it should be brought into line with it, because, let’s repeat, the status of the Peace Treaty is much higher. The Alma Ata Declaration is fundamental for the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and it has already been agreed at the highest level as a basic principle,” Pashinyan’s office said.

“The Commissions agreed that after the approval of the Regulation, they will agree on the order of delimitation of the remaining sections of the Armenia-Azerbaijan state border (that is, which sections of the border will be reproduced next) and in this context they will also address the issue of enclaves/exclaves,” added the statement by the prime minister’s office.

Armenia, the statement said, will not back down from advancing the issue of the so-called enclaves and exclaves, because Artsvashen, currently within Azerbaijan, “is a part of the sovereign territory of our country.”

“We are going to de jure substantiate the existence of the Artsvashen exclave/enclave in the delimitation process, and the government of the Republic of Armenia has such substantiations, after which the actual delimitation process around Artsvashen will be carried out. What kind of political solution will be given to the issue after being recorded is a different question. In the delimitation process, the existence of the exclave/enclaves must first be substantiated de jure,” the prime minister’s office said.

The decision by the border delimitation commission on Friday also stipulates that in “a short but reasonable” timeframe Azerbaijan would withdraw its armed forces from the areas in question. Pashinyan’s office signaled that realigning roads and transport links to better accommodate traffic in the Armenia side of the border would not be difficult.

“Azerbaijan is very close to those villages even today and they are under direct fire. Yes, as a result of this process, the border guard service of Azerbaijan will get closer to the villages of Kirants and Voskepar, but their villages and ours will be separated by a delimited state border. This is a key factor and let’s not forget that the border protection will be carried out by the border guards of the Republic of Armenia. In addition, there are many details of providing security, which will also be discussed and detailed in the near future,” Pashinyan’s office told Armenpress.

“For the sake of accuracy, let’s record that Azerbaijan receives two and a half villages belonging to it, because the entire territory of the village of Ghizilhachili, a significant part of the territory of the village of Ashagh Askipara was under the control of Azerbaijan,” the government statement explained.

“And in this process, the Republic of Armenia gets a reduction of risks related to security and border delimitation. With today’s event, as already mentioned above, we have a delimited border with Azerbaijan for the first time, which can be described as a significant event. The Republic of Armenia also gets an active platform and an opportunity to organize the border delimitation process in a civilized and legitimate way and to implement it, providing the necessary security, social and legal guarantees of the population,” the prime minister’s office added.