Day: March 6, 2024

Armenia said it has informed Russia that its border guards should be withdrawn from the Zvartnots International Airport, adding that Armenian guards should fully be able to perform those duties.

The discussion about Russian border guards being withdrawn from Zvartnots began circulating when Parliament Speaker Alan Simonyan, in his usual banter against Moscow, told reporters demanded their departure.

On Wednesday, however, Armenia’s National Security chief Armen Grigoryan claimed that, in fact, Yerevan has informed Moscow of its intentions.

Grigoryan told reporters that Armenian border guards should fully assume the responsibilities at Zvartnots, adding that, ”Armenia has a clear position on this issue and has informed the Russian Federation about it with an official letter.”

Through a multi-decade-long agreement between Yerevan and Moscow, Russian soldiers are currently guarding the Armenia’s borders with Turkey and Iran, as well as patrolling security at Zvartnots.

”At this moment, Armenia has full capability for full control over the airport,” Grigoryan told reporters.

The Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday said that his office was unaware of such a request from Yerevan.

“As far as we understand, there have been no decisions on this matter. And no one has informed us, through official channels, about those decisions,” Peskov said.

Grigoryan briefed reporters about his closed-door meeting with lawmakers of the ruling Civil Contract party, touching on array of Russia-centric issues that were discussed.

Demands for the Russian border guards’ withdrawal came soon after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signaled that his government would consider pulling out of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization, prompting the Kremlin to demand answers from the Armenian leader.

Grigoryan told reported that Russia should clarify its position as a CSTO member, rather than ask Armenia for such clarifications.

“You are aware that our recent engagement with the CSTO, at least since May 2021, our discussion with the CSTO was that we claimed that Armenia has a border with Azerbaijan, the CSTO claimed that it does not, and did not recognize that border, nor did it condemn the [Azerbaijani] occupation of the territory of Armenia. I would say that here there is a greater need for Russia, as a member of the CSTO, to clarify its positions towards Armenia, rather than for Armenia to clarify,” Grigoryan said.

He went a step further and accused Russia of not fulfilling the security guarantees engrained in various agreements between Armenia and Russia.

We [Armenia] have interconnected all our security guarantees with Russia at least until December 2021 — you can even say 100 percent. And we had three large-scale attacks and the occupation of the territory of Armenia  by Azerbaijan,” Grigoryan said.

“We have had many other problems. Now, given these problems, is Armenia to blame that they attacked Armenia? Definitely not. Armenia’s allies simply did not help it when it was faced with a security threat. Taking this into account, Armenia has started diversifying and looking for new security guarantees,” Grigoryan added.

Azerbaijan is refusing to acknowledge that it is occupying territories within Armenia, among them 31 areas that nor part of the so-called enclave element that has been delaying the demarcation and delimitation of the border between the two countries.

As a result, Azerbaijan is demanding unilateral territorial concessions from Armenia, Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan, who co-chairs the border delimitation commission along with his Azerbaijani and Russian counterparts, told Azatutyun.am’s Armenian Service on Wednesday.

Official Baku regularly accuses Armenia of occupying “eight Azerbaijani villages” and says their so-called “liberation” is a necessary condition for a peace deal between the two countries.

The reference is made to border areas — or enclaves — within Armenia that were controlled by Azerbaijan during the Soviet Union. In the 1990s, Azerbaijan seized a larger Armenian enclave, as well as large swaths of agricultural areas adjacent to this and several other border communities in Armenia.

In 2021 and 2022, Azerbaijani forces breached Armenia’s sovereign border and have since occupied more territory, from where they have launched military attacks against Armenian positions, the most recent of which took place last month and claimed four Armenian soldiers.

The Armenian government says that a total of 200 square kilometers of Armenia’s internationally recognized territory adjacent to 31 Armenian communities is now being controlled by Azerbaijan. Baku continues to deny the occupation of any Armenian territory.

“Of course, we will not take a single step back from our positions [occupied in] both May 2021 and September 2022 because that border must be established,” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said recently. What is more, he demanded that Armenia first withdraw from four of the “Azerbaijani villages” that were not enclaves.

“Azerbaijan is claiming Baghanis, Ayrum, Aghash (Nerkin) Voskepar, Kheyrimli, Kizil Hajili, while refusing to accept that the vital territories of 31 non-enclave settlements of Armenia are under Azerbaijani occupation,” Grigoryan’s office told Azatutyun.am.

These territories demanded by Azerbaijan are in Armenia’s Tavush Province and are mostly uninhabited. For example, the interstate road to Georgia passes near Nerkin Voskepar village.

Yerevan has rejected Baku’s claims and continues to insist that any border demarcation must advance based on the 1991 Alma Ata Treaty that delineates the borders following the breakup of the Soviet Union. Azerbaijan thus far has rejected this proposal.