Armenian PM emphasizes commitment to internationally recognized territory

YEREVAN, December 12. /ARKA/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan emphasized the importance of securing the country's internationally recognized territory, which serves as a crucial security buffer for Armenia.

"There has been talk about the inadmissibility of maps from the USSR, a non-existent country. I must say frankly that this approach is very dangerous for Armenia, as rejecting maps from the Soviet era could mean rejecting statehood and independence. We gained our independence on the territory of Soviet Armenia, and the international community recognized us as such," the prime minister said in response to questions from Facebook users.

He repeated his point, which he has made numerous times in public speeches, that “if we do not clearly recognize our internationally recognized territory, we give others the opportunity to deny it, citing our own words, and we open the door to others.”

As for Kirants (a village in Tavush bordering Azerbaijan, where the first section of the border was delimited – ed.), Nikol Pashinyan stated that no sovereign territory of Armenia was surrendered. "We have secured our gates, the border of our state, the threshold of our state, and I consider this a success story, a turning point," the prime minister said. 

He added that the examination of some disputed cadastral certificates in Kirants raised doubts about their legality. "Unfortunately, such practices are not uncommon in Armenia... Let’s not forget that all these territories – both Kirants and Khairimli – were part of the same state, and the residents of both villages had the same passports, and so on," Pashinyan assured.