Pashinyan Fulfills Aliyev's Latest Demand: 'Hraparak'

The newspaper 'Hraparak' reports that on May 8, Pashinyan was on a working visit to Moscow, where he met with Vladimir Putin. As a result of the meeting, it became known that the Russian side would withdraw its border guard units from the Tavush, Syunik, Vayots Dzor, Gegharkunik, and Ararat regions of Armenia, where they had been stationed after the 44-day war.

This fact was presented by the government propaganda machine and officials as a matter of 'sovereignty', implying that they are not submitting to Putin. However, they ignored an important detail regarding how and by whose decision the border guards had been stationed in those regions. In reality, they were there at Pashinyan's request and decision.

In fact, one of the demands presented by Aliyev in the preliminary version of the peace treaty was that representatives of a third country should not be present at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. We have obtained a part of this document where it is literally stated: 'The parties must exclude the presence of third party forces at their border.' Thus, Pashinyan has not demonstrated sovereignty and independence but has rather fulfilled Aliyev's latest demand.

This is why Russian border forces will maintain their presence on the state borders of Armenia with Iran and Turkey.