Senior pro-government lawmakers made on Tuesday differing statements on why the Armenian and Azerbaijani governments have missed a deadline for reaching an agreement on delineating the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
The two governments announced in April that they will adopt by July 1 “regulations” for joint activities of their commissions dealing with the delimitation and demarcation of the nearly 1,000-kilometer-long border. That pledge was part of a deal whereby Yerevan controversially ceded four disputed border areas to Baku.
The regulations are supposed to lay out the principles for delimiting the rest of the heavily militarized frontier. Armenian officials have said that they will lay the groundwork for Azerbaijan’s recognition of Armenia’s territorial integrity.
The two sides have given no reasons for their failure to meet the July 1 deadline. In virtually identical statements issued on Monday, they said they are continuing to negotiate “constructively” and plan to agree on the regulations “soon.”
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Armenian opposition figures speculated that Azerbaijan has no intention to honor the April understanding after clinching the Armenian territorial concessions. They said this only proves that Pashinian agreed to the unilateral land transfer under Azerbaijani pressure and secured nothing in return.
“As long as Azerbaijan is able to obtain territory and formalize that gain without any regulations it will not enter into any agreement,” said Artur Khachatrian of the main opposition Hayastan alliance. “That will continue as long as the Armenian authorities meekly satisfy Azerbaijan’s demands.”
Arman Yeghoyan, the pro-government chairman of the Armenian parliament committee on “European integration,” downplayed the parties’ failure to adopt the regulations on time.
“The time frames don’t matter,” Yeghoyan told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “What matters is the process, and the process is going on, negotiations are going on. An extra day, an extra week or an extra month doesn’t mean any substantive change.”
But Gagik Melkonian, another senior lawmaker representing Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, disagreed, saying that the Azerbaijani side is dragging its feet over a rules-based border delimitation. He said that Baku is “dragging out all processes,” including talks on an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty, in hopes of clinching additional Armenian concessions.