Armenia and Azerbaijan are Close to Signing a Border Demarcation Agreement

YEREVAN — Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan confirmed on Thursday that Armenia and Azerbaijan are close to signing a Russian-brokered agreement on the demarcation of their border. The document calls for the creation of an Armenian-Azerbaijani commission on border delimitation and demarcation.

“The solutions, preliminary agreements that have been reached with our international partners correspond to Armenia’s national interests by 100 percent … And yes, if Azerbaijan implements those understandings on the conditions that we’ve discussed, I will sign that paper,” he said speaking at a weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan.

Pashinyan accused opposition critics of distorting the essence of the draft deal. This is why the publicized segment of the leaked document was mostly blacked out, he said, branding his detractors “agents of Azerbaijan’s information warfare.”

Addressing a special session of the National Assembly on the same day, Pashinyan said that the position of the Armenian side remains the same – the armed forces of Azerbaijan must withdraw from the territory of Armenia without preconditions

The government did not consider it correct to publish the working document that is still under discussion. ”But since it has been published by the opposition, I can say that yes, it’s the only and unique document that has been on our working table for 1.5-2 days. What’s the key point in that document? It’s that the sides undertake to resolve the border situations not through mutual movements of troops, but only through diplomatic and political means. Is this a new idea? No, because I have announced about this from this podium before’’, Nikol Pashinyan said.

The commission on the delimitation and demarcation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani frontier shall be formed by May 31 and hold its first meeting by June 30. It makes no references to any Armenian territorial concessions.