YEREVAN (ArmInfo) – The Ministry of Justice of Armenia issued a statement regarding the “false and misleading theses” which were voiced about the work of the Commission on the delimitation of the state border between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the process carried out in the Tavush region.
The Ministry of Justice of Armenia considers false the thesis that the government is changing the territory of the Republic of Armenia, the territories of the Tavush region are being transferred to Azerbaijan, the territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia is being violated, which is a criminal offense. Changing the state border can only be carried out through a referendum. As stated in the Ministry of Justice, there can be no question of transferring any part of the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia to another state under any circumstances. The territory of the Republic of Armenia was de jure formed after the collapse of the USSR in 1991, based on the principles established by the Alma-Ata Declaration and the Minsk Agreements. The ongoing process concerns not the change of territory, but the re-establishment of the state border. The process is carried out based on legally valid maps and documents existing at the time of the collapse of the USSR, and under these maps, the issue of “transferring” any territory belonging to Soviet Armenia and, therefore, the Republic of Armenia, under the possession of another country has not been discussed and cannot be discussed.
The Ministry of Justice also considers false the thesis that the 4 villages on the territory of which demarcation is being carried out, belongs to the Republic of Armenia until the contrary is proven during the demarcation process.
The department believes that according to the maps legally in force during the existence of the USSR, the 4 villages under discussion belonged to Soviet Azerbaijan. In addition, these 4 villages have never been among the administrative-territorial units, regions, and communities existing on the territory of the Republic of Armenia.
The Ministry of Justice also considers as false the third thesis that the requirements of the RA Law “On State Border” are violated, an agreement on changing the territory can only be reached through international treaties. The Ministry believes that no process of changing the territory and borders of the Republic of Armenia is being carried out. The process being implemented is the reproduction of the state border in accordance with relevant international agreements. The statement notes that the agreement reached between the commissions is about agreeing on a certain section of the border line by May 15, as well as an appeal to the Government about the simultaneous deployment of border troops in this section. The Press release issued following the meeting of the commissions indicated that the demarcation in 4 villages is preliminary, until the demarcation process is fully completed. And the document confirming the complete completion of the demarcation process should already be an international agreement on the state border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which will be subject to ratification by the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia
The Ministry of Justice also considers false the thesis that the demarcation of the area by installing border pillars is carried out without delimitation on the map, which is a violation of the agreement reached between the commissions of Armenia and Azerbaijan on April 19. The Ministry of Justice notes that the installation of the pillars is carried out based on maps agreed upon by the parties, a working group that was formed specifically to draw up a draft description, and there are no disagreements between the working groups of the two countries in the areas where the pillars are installed. The Ministry of Justice also considers incorrect the following thesis that the RA Border Delimitation Commission is an advisory body, there are no documents regarding its activities, and the Commission does not have the right to make any decisions. In its response, the Ministry states that the commission was formed by the order of the RA Prime Minister, and later, by the decision of the Government, the procedure for organizing and holding meetings and joint working meetings between the commissions of the two countries was approved. At the same time, according to the agreement reached between the commissions, the delimitation process they will be guided by the Almaty Declaration of 1991, that is, the activities of the commissions are based on international treaties that have already been adopted by both countries and have undergone appropriate domestic procedures.
Finally, the Ministry of Justice calls on experts and other persons interested in the process to refrain from disseminating misleading and false information to the public.
Meanwhile, we note that experts, including independent ones, express the opinion that Azerbaijan does not consider itself the legal successor of Soviet Azerbaijan and, after the forceful takeover of Artsakh, began to promote the narrative of the so-called “Western Azerbaijan,” where the entire territory of the Republic of Armenia is presented as Azerbaijani territory.
Moreover, experts believe, the Alma-Ata Declaration, according to cartographers and historians, cannot serve as a basis for the delimitation and demarcation of the border, since this document was declarative under which there is not a single real map. According to experts, to carry out demarcation and delimitation work, an obligatory condition is to indicate the map based on which these works are carried out. Moreover, it should also be noted that the Alma-Ata Declaration states that the USSR ceases to exist, and in its place the Commonwealth of Independent States will be formed, which now includes former union republics that recognize and respect each other’s territorial integrity and the inviolability of existing borders on the moment of signing the declaration of borders. But at the time of signing this document, all the territories that the Armenian government intends to unilaterally transfer to Azerbaijan were part of the Republic of Armenia. Moreover, Azerbaijan itself joined this declaration in 1993 alone.
