Yerevan explained mechanism of returning four villages to Azerbaijan

Armenian Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Gnel Sanosyan answered negatively to the question of an Armenian journalist about the ownership of four villages in Armenia's Tavush region, which Baku demands to return to Azerbaijan. The official recognised the necessity to relocate some communications in case the actual border changes.

The villages in question are the Azerbaijani villages of Baganis Ayrim, Ashagi Askipara, Kheirimli and Gyzylgajily.

Recall that the Tavush province borders the Kazakh region of Azerbaijan, whose four enclave villages were easily captured by the Armenian army in 1992 as they were surrounded by Armenian territory. Since then, all of Azerbaijan's enclave territories have remained under occupation.  Official Baku demands the return of the eight enclave villages.

Sanosyan pointed out that in order to resolve the territorial dispute, the parties must first mutually agree on the map used to delimit and demarcate the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

"Due to this map there will be both desk, delimitation and demarcation works," the Minister noted.

Touching upon the changes in the Tavush region, Sanosyan said that in those areas there are places that are very close to the border line, in some places it may turn out that they cross the border. This means that in some areas there may be a question of reconstructing those areas.  He added that the work on delimitation and demarcation in Tavush region has not yet started, and there are also no specific deadlines.

Also, Sanosyan emphasised that Armenia continues to demand from Azerbaijan the territories of 31 non-annexed villages under the control of the Azerbaijani side. However, so far the Armenian side has not publicised names of these villages, except for Artsvashen (Bashkend-az.), which is located in the Azerbaijani border district of Kedabey. The village was founded between 1845-1854 by Armenian settlers.  

Official Baku denies Yerevan's accusation of 31 villages allegedly seized by Azerbaijan.