Nikol Pashinyan and His Parliamentary Relative Make False Claims About State Borders: Hetq.am

Post-war, particularly regarding the new contact line formed with the enemy in the Syunik region, which resulted in certain areas of previously Armenian-controlled territory falling under the control of Azerbaijan, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has turned to promoting manipulative and even false theses. He claims that the description of Armenia's borders with Azerbaijan was established by the "Administrative Territorial Division" law adopted in 2010, according to Hetq.am.

False assertions made repeatedly by the Prime Minister are being circulated by his party members and team. What Pashinyan states is a classic example of "fake news." The phenomenon of spreading false news is also characteristic of this situation. The law was not adopted in 2010, but rather in 1995.

To start with, the country’s executive leader regularly repeats the same mistake, but it is hard to say whether this is due to ignorance or an intentional act. Specifically, the "Administrative Territorial Division" law was adopted not in 2010 (during the presidency of Serzh Sargsyan), but on November 7, 1995 (during the era of Levon Ter-Petrosyan), and it came into effect on December 15, 1995. Furthermore, changes and modifications were made to the law on June 24, 2010 (Pashinyan mistakenly mentioned May 24, 2010, during his talk in Syunik, a point that was not corrected by his media team).

This may not be a significant error, since the current government is targeting the 2010 modifications, but the fact remains that the public is being provided with information that the National Assembly, which was under the control of the Republican Party of Armenia and its coalition partners in 2010, adopted a law that allegedly specified the borders (particularly with Azerbaijan) as Pashinyan claims. The reality is that Armenia did not define or specify its state border with Azerbaijan in 2010.

We will delve into this matter further below, but prior to that, let’s highlight one more mistake made by the Prime Minister. The emphasis on 2010 by Pashinyan and his team is incorrect because the modifications they are targeting were first made in October 2009; in other words, Azerbaijan’s name first appeared in the "Administrative Territorial Division" law at that time. We will discuss this in more detail further below.

This law has no relation to the determination of state borders.

The aforementioned law, as its name suggests, concerns Armenia's administrative territorial division, meaning it registers or describes not Armenia's international or state borders but rather its internal boundaries between communities/regions. The law regarding the state border is based on the "Law on the State Border," adopted in November 2001 and in effect since December 2001. This law states: "The state border is determined by Armenia's international treaties and the laws of Armenia... The specification and modification of the state border is carried out according to Armenia's international treaties and laws. Based on international treaties of the Republic of Armenia, documents establishing amendments to the state border are brought into operation in accordance with Armenian legislation."

Since independence, Armenia has not signed a treaty regarding the determination or specification of its state border with Azerbaijan; this issue remains open. This means that the assertion made by N. Pashinyan on April 21 at the Syunik regional administration regarding Armenia's determination and localization of its state borders is false. It is clear that Armenia could not have independently determined its borders with any other country, as this requires a bilateral treaty, which has not been established with Azerbaijan.

On the important clarification regarding the "Administrative Territorial Division" law, it is worth quoting the comments from the Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan, made back in December of last year when the enemy advanced unimpeded, including into Armenian territory (areas that were under enemy control, where, for instance, our citizens held property certificates issued by the Armenian Cadastre Committee), while the current authorities repeatedly mentioned the "law adopted in 2010" at the highest levels.

Perhaps also for the knowledge of the current authorities, the Human Rights Defender emphasized at that time:

The regulations of Armenia's administrative territorial division and the issues of the determination of state borders are completely different phenomena. They cannot be equated, and furthermore, the state's border cannot be determined based on administrative-territorial division rules or even use those rules as a foundation.

The provisions of the "Administrative Territorial Division" law concern the internal boundaries of administrative units and cannot serve as a legal basis for determining borders with other states. Thus, this law simply pertains to the determination of the administrative borders of Armenia's regions or communities.

The "Administrative Territorial Division" law cannot be interpreted or cited as a legal basis for determining and modifying borders with another state. Citing this law to justify a claim that it is applicable in the process of determining borders with a foreign state, especially considering that the names of "Republic of Azerbaijan" appear when describing our country's external boundaries, is incorrect.

In the process of determining borders, this may, at best, be a supporting, secondary factor. In the case of Azerbaijan, citing this law as a foundational legal basis for determining Armenia's state borders is fraught with serious risks, even if the law has deficiencies that have not been corrected over time. This is not aligned with the imperatives of our country's security and the inviolability of our borders, nor the protection of our people's rights.

"Republic of Azerbaijan" instead of "Republic of Artsakh": why, and what would change that for the RA?

The current government emphasizes the fact that in 2010, the previous authorities made amendments to the "Administrative Territorial Division" law and mentioned when describing the administrative territorial boundaries of adjacent communities from Sotk (Gegharkunik) to the Araks River (Syunik) that the boundary is described as "Shurnukh-state border (Republic of Azerbaijan) boundary line - A-B." The description of this boundary line was given as: "The boundary line along the A-B segment coincides with the state border of the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan."