Armenia Will Remain Committed to the Return of Occupied Territories: Marukyan

Edmon Marukyan, Armenia's special envoy, reacted to the announcement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, which stated that the meetings in Prague and Sochi did not clarify the maps based on which the delimitation of borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan should occur. Marukyan addressed this topic in response to a question from Armenpress.

- Mr. Marukyan, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, responding to the interview given by Armenia’s Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan to Armenpress, stated that the announcements following the summits in Prague and Sochi indicated that the delimitation of borders should be carried out in accordance with the UN Charter and the Alma-Ata Declaration, but there is allegedly no mention of the maps on which this should take place. Meanwhile, a representative of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry claims that there are allegedly Azerbaijani villages under the control of Armenia. How do you comment on this statement?

- I want to point out that Azerbaijani officials need to clarify one question: is there a border between Armenia and Azerbaijan or not? Because during the aggressive actions they unleashed against Armenia on May 12, 2021, and September 13, 2022, they claimed that the border was not delimited and does not exist, but now how can they assert that there are Azerbaijani territories under the control of the Republic of Armenia? By making such claims, the Azerbaijani side admits that there is a clear border between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Armenia's position on the state border is very clear and stems from international law: there is a state border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which the parties reaffirmed based on the Alma-Ata Declaration and related protocols during the quadrilateral meeting in Prague on October 7, 2022, and the trilateral meeting in Sochi on October 31, 2022. Acknowledging the existence of the state border, we have repeatedly stated that a number of villages in Armenia's Tavush region, specifically about 70% of the agricultural lands near Berkaber village and a large part of Jrambar, approximately 70% of the farmland near Paravakar village, as well as the agricultural lands of Aygehovit and Vazashen villages have been occupied by Azerbaijan since the 1990s. Armenia will remain committed to ensuring that these territories are also returned.

Regarding the issue of maps raised periodically by Azerbaijan, claiming that there are no specific maps mentioned in the announcements and that it is unclear which maps should be used for delimitation, the Azerbaijani side contradicts itself. By mutually recognizing each other’s borders through the Alma-Ata Declaration and related protocols, Azerbaijan has closed the topic of map manipulation because it is clear that we are discussing the administrative borders of the republics of the Soviet Union. Therefore, it is impossible to simultaneously affirm that yes, we recognize the territorial integrity of Armenia based on the Alma-Ata Declaration and its related protocols, while continuing to discuss historical maps in uncertain terms.

- What position has the Republic of Armenia adopted in this situation, based on what should we move forward, and what solutions do you see?

- Armenia has officially responded multiple times and proposed to ensure that there are no occupied territories along the entire border, as well as to propose solutions for mirrored withdrawal along the border and the establishment of a demilitarized zone. However, in response to these solutions, Azerbaijan, first, did not return its troops to their positions prior to May 12, 2021, and then disregarding the ongoing work of the commissions handling delimitation and border security, unleashed new aggression on September 13 of this year, resulting in the occupation of new territories from the Republic of Armenia's sovereign territory.

To summarize, I must emphasize that the fundamental issue is this: Azerbaijan cannot claim that we have a clear border in all cases when there is an attempt to present the history of Azerbaijani territories under the control of Armenia while unleashing aggressive military actions against Armenia and occupying territories, claiming on the contrary that there is no border and that it is subject to delimitation. All the proposals made by Armenia are in force, and in the presence of political will from Azerbaijan, based on the Alma-Ata Declaration and related protocols, it is necessary to move forward and expedite the delimitation of mutually recognized state borders, which will positively impact the signing of a peace treaty.