Armenia and Azerbaijan Have One Common Thing: Vaal

Russians genuinely want to be part of the Armenian-Azerbaijani delimitation process and move Russian border guards to the Armenia-Azerbaijan border. This was stated by Thomas de Waal, a senior expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, in an interview with 'Azatutyun'.

"The Russians indeed want to be a part of the Armenian-Azerbaijani delimitation process. Foreign Minister Lavrov has said, 'You know, we have the best maps. So, you need to come to us to determine where the border runs.' And here the agenda is that they want to relocate Russian border guards to the Armenia-Azerbaijan border. Of course, you have Russian border guards at the Turkish border and the Iranian border. They are very eager to have those border guards at the Armenia-Azerbaijan border as well," said Thomas de Waal.

In his opinion, Armenia and Azerbaijan share one commonality: both do not want Russian border guards present there. "Thus, once again, I believe that this gesture by Mr. Pashinyan, the return of these villages, should be seen as part of an attempt to push Russia back. At the same time, there is an important issue we need to discuss; we talk about it every time, but it is still incredibly important. This is the so-called 'Zangezur Corridor'—the route leading from Meghri to Nakhchivan. I am quite concerned that in this regard, Russia and Azerbaijan are cooperating," the expert concluded.