Armenia does not want to return Azerbaijani enclaves

Baku/14.05.22/Turan: Armenia officially responded to the statement of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry about its intention to return the Azerbaijani enclaves that were captured by the Armenian army during the first Karabakh war of 1992-94.

Azerbaijan has no legal grounds to demand enclaves, and the statement of the Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan is not based on any legal document, Aarmenian  Ambassador-at-Large Edmon Marukyan said in an interview with the Public Television.

On May 5, the Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia stated that the issue of enclaves was not being discussed. Moreover, at the official level, Azerbaijan has not raised this issue before.

Marukyan said that Yerevan has not received legal grounds or legal documents from Baku regarding any enclave on Armenian territory. "Various maps have been published, but there is a very important circumstance: a map published by one of the parties is not a legal justification for the ownership of the territory by one side or another. Any map must be based on a legal document," the ambassador said.

Moreover, he added that Yerevan has legal grounds "for enclaves on the territory of Azerbaijan." These "reasons" will be presented by the Armenian side at the talks with Azerbaijan.

Also, Armenia continues to demand the withdrawal of the Azerbaijani armed forces from the territories, which, according to Yerevan, were taken under the control of Azerbaijan after the second Karabakh war.

On May 28, 2021, Acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan was the first to speak about the enclaves. He offered Azerbaijan not to exchange enclaves that have existed since Soviet times to resolve territorial disputes.

"If someone says that they have enclaves, we also say that we have enclaves. There were decisions in international practice. It is the following - who owns the territory from this point of view, remains with him. And this issue is mutually resolved," Pashinyan said at a meeting with the activists of the Civil Contract party headed by him.

Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan, speaking at a briefing on May 5 this year, repeated Pashinyan's proposal. “The issue of enclaves was not raised,” he said, answering a question about the dialogue between Yerevan and Baku. “Both Azerbaijan and Armenia have enclaves, the territory of which is almost equal. We hope that the possible solution will be that Armenia and Azerbaijan leave enclaves in the territories of the countries, as they are.”

On May 10, Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Khalaf Khalafov replied: “These lands are the territory of Azerbaijan. The return of these territories to Azerbaijani control requires a process of delimitation. Therefore, the issue will be considered within its framework. These issues will be discussed and resolved."

All interviewed Armenian politicians and political scientists believe that Yerevan is not obliged to return the enclaves to Azerbaijan, explaining this by the historical belonging of the territories to Armenians and the roads laid along them, which are important for the life of the Armenian population.

Political scientist Ilgar Velizade, answering a question from Turan, said that if the parties agree to recognize territorial integrity within the borders that existed during the Soviet period, then all enclaves should be returned to their owners - enclaves on the territory of Armenia should be returned to Azerbaijan, and the Bashkend enclave, which the Armenian side calls "Artsvashen" may be transferred to Armenia.

If, however, during the negotiations the parties agree to leave the territories of the enclave villages in the state they are in now, then the exchange will not be equivalent, since the enclave Armenian village of Bashkend near the Gadabay region of Azerbaijan (“Artsvashen”) is smaller than all the Azerbaijanis who found themselves in the Armenian encirclement villages of the Kazakh region and Nakhchivan, Velizade added.

Occupied by the Azerbaijani army in 1992, the Armenian settlement of Bashkend (Artsvashen) occupies 40 square kilometers.

During the same period, the Armenian army occupied seven Azerbaijani enclave villages belonging to the Gazakh region and one village belonging to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (Kyarki).

Yukhari Askipara - 8.6 sq. km,

Ashagi Askipara - 9.1 sq. km,

Baganis Airym - 40 sq. km,

Barkhudarly - 10.1 sq. km,

Cofulu - 22 sq. km,

Gyzyl Hadjily - 11 sq. km,

Xeyrimli - 4.1 sq. km,

Karki (Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic) - 19.2 sq. km.

The total area of ​​the occupied seven villages of the Gazakh region and one village of the NAR is 124 square kilometers, which is three times larger than the territory of the settlement of Bashkend.--0--