First Border Pillar Installed on Armenia-Azerbaijan Border

YEREVAN — The first border pillar on the border of the Republic of Armenia and the Azerbaijani Republic was installed on April 23, 2024, the Armenian government reported.

“On the basis of geodetic measurements at the border of the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan, the first border post was installed within the framework of coordinate adjustment works. The work of expert groups of the two countries is continuing,” the government said in a statement issued late in the afternoon.

It also released photographs of the post apparently placed near Baghanis, one of the four Tavush villages that will be seriously affected by Yerevan’s latest territorial concessions to Baku.

Early in the morning, the Armenian military started demining the area which was due to be placed under Azerbaijani control. Road police closed a nearby section of a highway leading to the three other affected villages as well as Tavush’s capital, Ijevan. The National Security Service essentially acknowledged that this was done to prevent locals from trying to disrupt the mine clearance.

On April 19 Armenia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the preliminary agreement was reached with Azerbaijan to start border delimitation process in separate sections of the borderline immediately between the several settlements in order to bring them into compliance with the legally justified interrepublican border that existed within the Soviet Union at the moment of its dissolution.

The parties have agreed that the process of delimitation will be based on the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1991. The parties have also arranged to stipulate this fundamental principle in the draft Regulation (in the future, in case the Agreement on establishment of peace and interstate relations between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan provides otherwise, the relevant clause of the Regulation will be brought into compliance with the principles as prescribed by this Agreement).