![Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in Paris, June 1, 2021.](https://img.lemde.fr/2021/07/03/0/0/5568/3712/664/0/75/0/6965bc4_847794370-000-9b73lq.jpg)
Armenia and Azerbaijan announced on Thursday May 16 that they had agreed on part of the delimitation of the common border, a subject of extreme tension for decades. These two Caucasian countries clashed in two wars for control of the Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh, then Baku launched an offensive in September 2023 which allowed it to regain control of this territory, chasing away the Armenian separatists who had run it for three decades.
At the end of March, the Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinian, in search of a peace agreement, approved the restitution of border villages conquered by Armenia in the 1990s and since abandoned. This decision has angered residents of nearby areas, who fear that this demarcation process will isolate them and that some houses will end up under Azerbaijani control.
It led to a protest movement across Armenia led by an archbishop, Bagrat Galstanian, who demanded the resignation of Mr. Pashinian. In separate statements on Thursday, the foreign ministries of the two countries said they had reached “coordinate adjustment” at part of the disputed border, based on maps dating from the Soviet era.
The issue of roads to Georgia
According to this plan, four border villages, today in the hands of Armenia, must come under the control of Azerbaijan. Mr. Pashinian, supporter of an agreement with Azerbaijan, welcomed “a very important milestone for strengthening the sovereignty and independence of Armenia”. “For the first time since independence (from the Soviet Union in 1991)our republic has an officially demarcated borderhe congratulated himself. This takes our security and stability to a higher level. »
The territory that Armenia agreed to hand over is of strategic importance to the landlocked country, as it controls sections of an important route to neighboring Georgia. Pashinian said on Thursday that Armenia would build new roads in the region in the coming months and that border guards from both countries would be deployed along the redrawn border. “in the next ten days”.