Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that the country must hand over four border villages to Azerbaijan and return to its Soviet-era borders as part of peace efforts, otherwise the countries would risk sparking a new conflict, according to Politico.
Our policy is that we must prevent a war — we must not allow a war to start.
Pashinyan stated during his visit to the border on Tuesday that the government had decided to demarcate and delimit the entire border, including the territories, which belonged to Azerbaijan’s internationally recognised land but had been controlled by Armenia since the collapse of the Soviet Union. He claimed Armenia could face an attack “by the end of the week” if it did not cede the villages.
Baku demanded the return of the exclaves, but Yerevan hoped they could be part of the swap, with Azerbaijan withdrawing troops from some 215 square kilometres of Armenian territory seized during a brief military operation in 2022. However, the deal was rejected and the villages must be returned to ensure Azerbaijan would not launch another offensive.
No mention was made of whether Azerbaijan would agree to hand over an Armenian exclave, roughly the size of four villages, inside its borders.
The statement came amid a visit by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to Armenia. The country had been seeking closer ties with the West since the outbreak of war in Ukraine, when Pashinyan declared last year that Moscow was no longer a reliable security guarantor.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev visited the former Nagorno-Karabakh region on Tuesday. An Azerbaijani offensive seized the territory in September, causing a mass exodus of 100,000 Armenian residents.
