By refusing to return enclaves, Armenia to lose more territory

Baku/20.09.22/Turan: Expert communities are discussing the significance of the September 12 battles that unfolded nearly along the entire length of the Azerbaijani-Armenian border, during which the Azerbaijani army took control over some territories. Since Armenia does not recognize the Soviet administrative border between the Azerbaijani SSR and the Armenian SSR, which is the state border between the two sovereign states, in the international legal sense, the belonging of these heights to Armenia is questionable, Baku justifiably believes.

The previous battles with the entry of the Azerbaijani army to new frontiers took place on May 12, 2021.

A landmark event of the occupation of some territories by the Azerbaijani army in May 2021 and September 2022 lies in the total area taken under control. Military expert Jasur Sumerenli came to the conclusion that 200 square kilometers have been occupied. This figure also includes the territories that fell into the firing zone of the Azerbaijani army from the occupied borders.

According to the calculations of Yerevan experts, the territory actually occupied by the Azerbaijani army is much smaller - 50 sq km. "The enemy occupied 40 square kilometers of Armenian land in May last year, and now it has occupied another 10 square kilometers," Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the parliamentary session.

Accusing Azerbaijan of aggression against "sovereign Armenia", Yerevan refers to the Soviet borders with which the Armenian SSR left the Soviet Union. But within these borders there were Azerbaijani villages in the Kazakh region and one village in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, surrounded by the territory of the Armenian SSR - the so-called enclaves. These villages were captured and destroyed by Armenians in 1992. In response, in 1992, the Azerbaijani army captured the Armenian enclave on the territory of the Gedabek district - the village of Bashkend (Artsvashen).

Take the territory of the enclaves. 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).

Yukhary Askipara — 8.6 sq . km,

Ashagy Askipara – 9.1 sq . km,

Baganis Ayrim — 40 sq. km,

Barkhudarly — 10.1 sq. km,

Sofulu — 22 sq . km,

Gyzyl Khajyly — 11 sq. km,

Heirimli — 4.1 sq. km,

Kyarki (Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic) — 19.2 sq. km.

Note that total area of the seven occupied villages of the Gazakh region and one village of NAR is 124 square kilometers, which is three times more than the territory of the Bashkend settlement, which belongs to Armenia according to the Soviet map.

Nikol Pashinyan refused to return the enclave villages and surrounding lands to Azerbaijan.

At the moment, Azerbaijani diplomats can say that the return of the territories occupied by the Azerbaijani armed forces in 2021 and 2022 may occur in response to the de-occupation of Azerbaijani enclaves by Armenia. -0-