Border delimitation cannot be one-sided- Pashinyan

YEREVAN, April 10. /ARKA/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in an interview with Azatutyun Radio presented Armenia's position on border delimitation with Azerbaijan saying that the process cannot be one-sided.

Asked whether there is an Armenian-Azerbaijani decision to start delimitation from Tavush region of Armenia or Armenia is voicing this option to avoid war, Pashinyan said there is no agreement at the moment, "but we said we are not against it."

"We should also record our interest in this issue. Avoiding war or not allowing war is a normal, natural task, but I want to say that in this situation we have not only this task. Our task is also to fix the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia," he said.

Asked whether the process is not a unilateral concession since Azerbaijan does not agree to it, Pashinyan said that if the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan is fixed jointly with Baku, it cannot be a unilateral process.

He explained, however, that the absence of an agreement means that the sides have not agreed on exactly at what point and on what territory the delimitation begins.

"Tomorrow, perhaps, we will come to an agreement, as discussions are underway at the working level," he said.

At the same time, the prime minister noted that there is no question of surrendering or not surrendering villages.

"We conduct delimitation, recognizing Armenia's territorial integrity. When we draw the border at any point, we will fix the following: what is Armenia and what is Azerbaijan," he said.

Asked on what basis the fixation would take place in the absence of agreed maps, he said on the basis of principle.

"We have an agreement that the process is to be based on the Alma-Ata Declaration. It was fixed in Prague, Sochi, twice in Brussels. I recently spoke about it; the President of Azerbaijan recently spoke about it. If I understand correctly, we should transfer this agreement to the ground and fix the border. What is ours is ours, what is theirs is theirs. If some action should be done to make what is ours de jure under our control, it should happen," he said, explaining that the same applies to Azerbaijan and that there can be no unilateral processes.

Asked whether Yerevan agrees to return four villages in the Tavush region demanded by Baku to avoid a war without delimitation, Pashinyan said that at least one of the four villages has never been and now is not under Armenian control, as well as the entire territory of the other three villages.

"We are also ready to agree on the sites, and on those sites that we jointly agree, what is ours will be ours, what is not ours will not be ours," he said. -0-