Armenia has agreed to return four abandoned border villages that it has controlled since the early 1990s to Azerbaijan as the initial step in defining the frontier between the two bitter South Caucasus rivals, the countries said in identical statements on April 19.
Armenia’s Foreign Ministry said the agreement was reached during the eighth round of talks between Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Shahin Mustafayev, which was held at an undisclosed section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
It said the parties reached preliminary agreement that the initial stage of the delimitation process will involve sections between four villages in the territory of Armenia’s northeastern Tavush Province and four abandoned villages that used to be part of Azerbaijan’s northwestern Qazax district.
"Armenia has agreed to return four villages under occupation since the early 1990s," Azerbaijan Foreign Ministry spokesman Aykhan Hajizade wrote on social media.
The abandoned former Azerbaijani villages face the Armenian villages and have been under Armenia’s military control since 1991-92, when ethnic clashes between the two former Soviet nations intensified. The proposed border will run between the Armenian and Azerbaijani villages.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought wars over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh -- with more than 30,000 people killed -- as they transitioned into independent countries.
Azerbaijan regained control of Nagorno-Karabakh in a lightning military offensive last year, but much of the border between the countries remains in dispute, with both sides occupying villages that formerly belonged to the other.
SEE ALSO: As Peace Negotiations Advance, Armenia And Azerbaijan Are Going It AloneThe statement says the paired villages are Baghanis (Armenia) and Baganis Ayrum (Azerbaijan), Voskepar (Armenia) and Asagi Askipara (Azerbaijan), Kirants (Armenia) and Xeyrimli (Azerbaijan), and Berkaber (Armenia) and Qizilhacili (Azerbaijan).
According to the statement, the process is aimed at “bringing them in line with the legally established inter-republican border that existed within the framework of the Soviet Union at the time of its disintegration.”
"It was agreed...to continue the process of delimitation of all other sections of the border, including on the issues of enclaves and exclaves."
The agreement comes two days after Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian visited three border villages in Tavush to meet with residents and discuss upcoming arrangements, which he said were vital to ensuring Armenia’s sovereignty and independence.
Residents of border villages have expressed concerns that the demarcation of the border with Azerbaijan in accordance with the Soviet-era configuration would deprive them of access to their farmlands and complicate their communication with the rest of the country due to the fact that some sections of the only road they have would fall under Azerbaijani control.
Pashinian pledged his government’s efforts to address the difficulties that local residents might face in connection with the planned border demarcation, including building new sections of the road stretching along the border.
Talking to residents in Berkaber on April 17, Pashinian said that he was putting his political career in the balance so that “Armenia can become a truly independent state.”
Armenian opposition groups have strongly criticized Pashinian for agreeing to discuss the transfer of four formerly Azeri villages to Baku without immediately getting Azerbaijan to withdraw from parts of sovereign Armenian territory that Baku's military captured during a series of border incursions in 2021-22.
Word of the latest agreement comes shortly after the Group of Seven (G7) nations called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to remain “fully committed” to the peace process as the group’s foreign ministers issued a communique after their meeting in Capri, Italy, on April 19.
In the lengthy statement on various challenges around the world, the top diplomats of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain, the United States, as well as the European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, also called on Azerbaijan “to fully comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law.”
“We urge Armenia and Azerbaijan to remain fully committed to the peace process to achieve a dignified and durable peace based on the principles of non-use of force, respect for sovereignty, the inviolability of borders, and territorial integrity,” the part of the communique concerning the South Caucasus reads.