Pro-government MP says Armenia "never promised Azerbaijan anything"
YEREVAN, November 8. /ARKA/. Armenian parliament member from the ruling Civil Contract party said today that ‘Armenia has never promised anything to Azerbaijan.’
Gevorg Papoyan, chairman of the National Assembly Committee on Economic Affairs, recalled, when speaking to reporters that "Armenia stated its readiness for delimitation and demarcation of borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan based on the 1974-1975 maps. And according to these maps, we have 7-8 villages in Armenia's Tavush region, whose arable lands are currently under the full control of the Azerbaijani side."
According to Papoyan, one of the options (to resolve the issue of Azerbaijani enclaves in Armenia and Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan) is to preserve the border between the countries as it is today. According to another option, the arable lands previously under the control of the Armenian side should be returned to it.
"But whatever it is, Armenia's territory should make up 29,800 square kilometers," the parliamentarian stressed.
He said a peace treaty between the two countries "should not have provisions that would contain a time bomb."
"We should sign such a peace treaty that will not cause any problems and will stave off the likelihood of a new war," the MP summarized.
Papoyan also said that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has never announced the transfer of Tigranashen (an Azerbaijani exclave village in Armenia) to Azerbaijanis.
In response to the journalist's remark that Tigranashen is one of the villages that the Azerbaijani authorities consider as their enclaves on the territory of Armenia, the MP said, "It is you (the journalist), Hikmet Hajiyev (Azerbaijani presidential aide) and Ilham Aliyev (Azerbaijani President) who are talking about eight (Azerbaijani) villages."
In response, journalists recalled that Pashinyan had earlier referred to Tigranashen as Kyarki (the Azerbaijani name of the enclave village).
Regarding the enclaves, Nikol Pashinyan said earlier that "Azerbaijan raises the issue of eight villages. We, in turn, also state that we have the issue of eight villages, because in the same Tavush region, there are territories occupied by Azerbaijan."
Granada statement
On October 5, European Council President Charles Michel, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met in Granada, Spain.
Following the meeting, a statement was adopted, noting in particular that Michel, Macron and Scholz stress their unwavering support for Armenia's independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of borders, and are committed to all efforts aimed at normalizing relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan on the basis of mutual recognition of the sovereignty, inviolability of borders and territorial integrity of Armenia (29,800 km2) and Azerbaijan (86,600 km2). -0-
