Additionally, part of the border between the two countries, heading towards these villages, was delimited and demarcated. This marks the first significant outcome in the direct negotiations on border delimitation conducted without intermediaries.
As previously reported, border guards from both sides are patrolling the border line between Azerbaijan’s Gazakh district and Armenia’s Tavush province, and appropriate border infrastructure is being established.
The fate of the exclave villages in the Gazakh district (Yukhary Askipara, Sofulu, and Barkhudarli) seems to be a potential subject for further negotiations.
There is no official information yet about the timing and location of the next meeting of the commissions headed by Deputy Prime Ministers Shahin Mustafayev and Mher Grigoryan, nor about the direction that the delimitation negotiations will cover. However, according to Armenian sources, the next stage of negotiations might lead to an agreement on delimiting the border line heading towards Tovuz-Kedabek.
According to the newspaper “Graparak,” residents of the village of Vaan, part of the Chambarak community in Armenia’s Gegharkunik province, which borders Azerbaijan, have noticed surveyors in the surrounding mountainous areas. The surveyors allegedly told the villagers that Azerbaijan demands 12 combat positions of the Armenian army in this area, and Baku has long been promised their “handover.”
It is worth noting that during the battles of the early 1990s, Armenian forces did not manage to cross the administrative border between the Azerbaijan SSR and the Armenian SSR in the direction of the Gedabey and Tovuz districts (possibly with some minor exceptions). Currently, the combat positions of the Azerbaijani and Armenian armies are located along the notional border between the two countries in the direction of Tovuz and Gedabey.
The negotiations on the delimitation of the border in the Gazakh direction were based on a Soviet military map from 1975 (some time ago, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov complained that the sides somehow obtained this map) and the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1991. According to Armenian statements, there is a common understanding that the same map and principle will be applied in subsequent negotiations.
Therefore, it can be said that a basis for negotiations on delimitation in the Tovuz and Gedabey directions has emerged. However, the issue of Bashkend, which is considered an exclave territory of Armenia within Soviet administrative borders and is under Azerbaijani control, might become the foundation of these negotiations. It is possible that the sides will discuss an exchange of exclaves. (Recently, in an interview with a local internet TV channel, deputy Rasim Musabayev did not rule out the return of Bashkend, but his speech caused strong indignation on social media).
It should be noted that, in addition to the three villages of the Gazakh district under Armenian control, there is also an exclave of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. At the moment, the official Baku’s position regarding these exclaves is unknown. Since Azerbaijan is the victorious side, it may also demand their unconditional liberation.
Regarding the news from the Armenian newspaper about the 12 combat positions in the direction of Chambarak being handed over to Azerbaijan, if an agreement on delimitation is reached, the Armenian army must leave these positions, and border guards will be responsible for border security, as in the Gazakh district direction.
Incidentally, units of the Armenian army have already left their positions in the liberated villages of the Gazakh district, although the Armenian side is reluctant to talk about this. The head of the Armenian General Staff, Edward Asryan, reacted nervously to the corresponding question from journalists. “Do not ask such questions. The armed forces do not leave occupied positions. The armed forces are not assigned a specific position for security: the armed forces are designated in the form of a contour, section, circle, base. Regarding the position, you are asking about a tactical ring. The General Staff of the Armed Forces solves strategic tasks, and in the strategic ring, there is the army zone, brigade – zone, regiment – section, company – base. We are in pre-defined sectors and continue to perform the tasks assigned to us,” said Asryan.
Responding to a question about the territories handed over to Azerbaijan, the general said: “We have various infrastructures at every point, in every operational direction. The border troops in this direction perform the task assigned to them. The army is here, the army cannot go anywhere. Wherever the border troops serve, it is also the responsibility of the army, where we are ready to provide security.”
The Chief of the General Staff added that the returned territories did not belong to Armenia, so after the delimitation of borders, these territories could not be within the responsibility of the Armenian army.
Farhad Mammadov
Translated from haqqin.az
