We Must Wait Until Azerbaijani Military Units Withdraw from Armenian Territory: Avinyan

Border tensions exist, and they are created by the Azerbaijani side. This was stated today, July 14, during a conversation with journalists by Acting Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan.

“This is a very important observation, and we must note that when we try to look for other culprits, it misleads us. It is the Azerbaijani side that frequently creates tensions at the border. It is very important that we accept this, understand it, and also convince our international partners. All similar border tensions must receive symmetric responses, as restrained as possible. The state must also understand that maintaining border security is the responsibility of our armed forces and our border guards. It is our duty to ensure this.

Eventually, at some point, delimitation and demarcation with all our neighbors must take place, but, as they say, grossly violating our border, deploying inside our territory, and attempting to push us into actions through methods of blackmail is an ineffective path that cannot yield any results. The method of blackmail cannot be acceptable for the Armenian authorities.

Yes, negotiations must take place, but the first issue that must be discussed is the withdrawal of Azerbaijani military units from Armenian territory,” he said.

According to Avinyan, only after resolving these artificially created issues can discussions begin on fundamental topics. In response to a question about how long the Azerbaijani troops have not been withdrawn from Armenian territory for more than two months and how much longer we should wait, Avinyan replied, “We must wait until the Azerbaijani military units withdraw from the territory of Armenia. We must do everything to resolve the issue diplomatically.”

The acting deputy prime minister declared that the status of Artsakh is among Armenia's priorities today, and as long as this issue is not finally resolved, negotiations within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group will not be resumed. He stated that it would be difficult to speak about other approaches: “We emphasize the negotiation process and certain positive developments that exist in the unblocking negotiation process, but nevertheless, all final resolutions regarding peace treaties, delimitation, and demarcation contain certain obstacles. The first important issue is the status of Artsakh.”