Azerbaijan’s border service has taken control of four villages in the Gazakh district near the Armenian border as part of a recent agreement with Yerevan, Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev announced on Friday.
The area returned to Azerbaijan under this border delimitation agreement is 6.5 square kilometers (2.5 square miles), Mustafayev confirmed. In April, Armenia had indicated it would return the uninhabited villages to Azerbaijan, marking what both nations considered a significant step toward a peace agreement after over three decades of conflict.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s decision to hand over the villages has sparked protests at home, with demonstrators accusing him of betrayal and demanding his resignation. In a national address late Friday, Pashinyan detailed how Armenians had historically sought a homeland within specific geographic boundaries and emphasized that demarcating national borders was a part of that vision. He reiterated that the goal for Armenians is to ensure that a sovereign and democratic Armenia with clearly defined borders becomes a national ideology.
Azerbaijan’s forceful retaking of the Nagorno-Karabakh region in September last year, which led to the exodus of ethnic Armenians, was a significant blow to Yerevan. However, it has also removed a major point of contention, potentially paving the way for a long-sought peace deal.
Despite this progress, Azerbaijan and Armenia still face unresolved territorial disputes, particularly regarding enclaves that each side wants the other to relinquish control of or provide access to.
