Armenia recognises the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan within its territory

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STRASBOURG, October 17. Yerevan expects Baku to formally confirm Azerbaijan's recognition of Armenia's territorial integrity within the 29,800-square-kilometre territory and its demarcation borders on the basis of the latest maps issued by the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told a meeting of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

"Armenia recognises Azerbaijan's territorial integrity within [the 86,600 square kilometre territory]. However, the Azerbaijani president [Ilham Aliyev] did not give a substantive answer. He recently stated that he recognised Armenia's territorial integrity, but did not specify that he was referring to the 29 800 km2 territory. This has raised concerns among some analysts that he is deliberately maintaining some ambiguity in order to make territorial claims against Armenia," he said. "The agreement on the recognition of territorial integrity, with specific numbers, was reached precisely so that neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan could resort to any ambiguity," the prime minister pointed out.

Pashinyan added that the demarcation of the borders should be based on the maps of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces, pointing out that this principle is enshrined in the Granada Declaration.

The Armenian prime minister added that his main political goal is to support efforts to achieve peace in the region. He said there was an opportunity for a breakthrough at a meeting in Granada in early October, but Azerbaijan refused to attend.

On 5 October, on the sidelines of the European Political Community Summit in Granada, Spain, a meeting on the normalisation of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations was held. In addition to Armenian Pashinyan, the meeting was attended by European Council President Charles Michel, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron. However, according to APA, Azerbaijani President Aliyev refused to attend the meeting, allegedly because of "Paris' unacceptable position". After the meeting in Granada, the participants adopted a joint statement in which Pashinyan confirmed Azerbaijan's territorial integrity over an area of 86 600 km2. Azerbaijan considers this area to include eight rural enclaves located in the territory of Armenia, which were part of the former Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.

(TASS/USA)