Azatutyun.am. Not only Azerbaijan but also Armenia should withdraw troops from contested areas along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, a senior EU diplomat said on Monday.
Azerbaijani troops seized chunks of what Armenia regards as its internationally recognized territory during border clashes in 2021 and 2022. Speaking shortly after the deadliest of those clashes that broke out in September, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, acknowledged that they “occupied part of Armenia’s territory” and demanded their withdrawal from those border areas.
Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Paruyr Hovhannisyan said on Monday that Yerevan expects to get back a total of 139 square kilometers of land as a result of mutual recognition by the two South Caucasus of each other’s territorial integrity reaffirmed by their leaders during weekend talks in Brussels.
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European Council President Charles Michel, who hosted the talks, said Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, agreed, among other things, to revive joint efforts to demarcate the heavily militarized border.
Andrea Wiktorin, the head of the EU Delegation in Armenia, essentially equated Armenia with Azerbaijan when she commented on the matter during a joint news conference with Hovannisian.
“It is really important to come to an agreement,” she said. “Actually it is our hope that both sides will withdraw their troops and embark on the work of the delimitation and demarcation.”
Asked to elaborate on her comment, Wiktorin said: “It was clearly stated [at Brussels] that there are one or two spots where also Armenian forces are, let’s say, in border areas and there needs to be a very clear delimitation and demarcation.”
The diplomat did not specify those “spots,” saying that she is not aware of further details of Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks.
Hovannisian seemed bemused by Wiktorin’s remarks. “I also find it hard to tell what this is about,” he said.
Andranik Kocharian, the chairman of the Armenian parliament committee on defense and security, countered, for his part, that it is Baku that occupied Armenian territory after the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“What I know is that Armenian troops are where they must be at the moment,” he said. “What I know is that Azerbaijani troops violated Armenia’s sovereign territory. Again, what is ours is ours.”
In further comments to the press made after his news conference with Wiktorin, Hovannisian suggested that the EU envoy referred to several small enclaves inside Armenia which were controlled by Azerbaijan in Soviet times and occupied by the Armenian army in the early 1990s. Baku wants to regain control over them but has yet to clarify whether it is ready to give up a bigger Armenian enclave occupied by Azerbaijani forces in 1992.
“It is clear to everyone that at this stage we are talking about [Azerbaijani] troop withdrawal from Armenian territory,” stressed Hovhannisyan.
