The Armenian government remained tight-lipped on Wednesday about potential territorial concessions to Azerbaijan following the latest agreement on the delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
The Foreign Ministry announced the agreement last week after a joint meeting of the border commissions from both countries. According to the ministry, the delimitation process will commence from the northernmost section of the roughly 1,000-kilometer border and progress southward. No additional details were provided.
Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan, who leads the Armenian commission, also refrained from clarifying the specifics of the border delimitation, particularly regarding the status of enclaves within Armenia. These enclaves were controlled by Azerbaijan during the Soviet era but came under Armenian control in the early 1990s.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan seized a larger Armenian enclave and extensive agricultural land in Tavush province during the same period. Further incursions by Azerbaijani forces in 2021 and 2022 resulted in additional territorial losses for Armenia. Most of the Armenian-controlled enclaves are situated near the Tavush border region, including one that intersects a key highway linking Armenia to Georgia.
During a parliamentary Q&A session, opposition lawmaker Garnik Danielyan pressed Grigoryan on whether Azerbaijan would gain control over a portion of this highway under the forthcoming delimitation process. Grigoryan avoided a direct answer, saying, “If what you are saying is not in the agreement, then there is no such agreement.”
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s administration had previously transferred control of four disputed border areas in Tavush to Azerbaijan, triggering mass protests in Yerevan last spring. Opposition leaders warned that these concessions would embolden Baku to push for further demands without reciprocation. Danielyan called on opposition supporters last week to prepare for resistance against what he alleged were additional concessions planned by Pashinyan.
Artur Khachatryan, an opposition lawmaker from the Hayastan alliance, criticized Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan for not initiating the delimitation process in the south, specifically in Syunik province. Khachatryan argued that starting there would deter Azerbaijani advances in Syunik, prevent the creation of a corridor to Nakhichevan, and compel Azerbaijani forces to withdraw from Armenian territories seized in 2021 and 2022.
In response, Mirzoyan stated vaguely that the decision to start in the north was mutually agreed upon, emphasizing, “We are interested in the continuation of the delimitation process. We regard it as a very important element of the peace process.”
