Azerbaijan had demanded the return of the 4 villages as a situation for a peace deal after many years of battle.
Armenia has agreed to return a number of villages to Azerbaijan in what each international locations say is a vital milestone as they edge in the direction of a peace deal after preventing two wars because the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Azerbaijani Ministry of Overseas Affairs spokesperson Aykhan Hajizada posted on the social media platform X on Friday that Armenia would return 4 villages close to the international locations’ shared border that had been “below occupation” because the early Nineties. He known as it a “long-awaited historic occasion”.
In Armenia, the state information company quoted Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s workplace as saying: “On this course of, the Republic of Armenia receives a discount in dangers related to border delimitation and safety.”
It mentioned the handover in observe concerned “two and a half villages” as a result of Azerbaijan already partly managed the settlements concerned, nevertheless it added that the demarcation of the border was a “important occasion”.
The settlements are abandoned however are strategically necessary as a result of they’re near Armenia’s predominant freeway north in the direction of the border with Georgia. A lot of Armenia’s commerce travels on this highway, and it goes to the pipeline via which it receives gasoline from Russia.
The settlement was reached at a gathering on the 2 international locations’ border, chaired by their deputy prime ministers.
‼️Lengthy-awaited historic occasion: 📢
Because of the eighth assembly of the State Commissions on the delimitation of the state border between #Azerbaijan and #Armenia, Armenia has agreed to return 4 villages of Azerbaijan that have been below the occupation since early Nineties. pic.twitter.com/qoHA9urFKv
— Aykhan Hajizada (@Aykhanh) April 19, 2024
In line with a written assertion by Azerbaijan, one of many points the commissions reached settlement on was figuring out the border alongside Azerbaijan’s Gazakh province.
Turkey’s state-run Anadolu information company reported that the road will go via the villages of Baghanis (Armenia)-Baghanis Ayrum (Azerbaijan), Voskepar (Armenia)-Asagi Eskipara (Azerbaijan), Kirants (Armenia)-Heyrimli (Azerbaijan) and Berkaber (Armenia)-Kizilhacili (Azerbaijan),
This implies Armenia will return to Azerbaijan the villages of Baghanis Ayrum, Asagi Eskipara, Heyrimli and Kizilhacili, all which it occupied throughout the First Karabakh Struggle of 1988-1994, Anadolu mentioned.
Azerbaijan has been demanding the return of the villages as a situation for a peace deal after greater than three many years of battle, largely centred on the area of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Momentum shifted dramatically in favour of Azerbaijan in September when its forces staged a lightning offensive to regain management of Nagorno-Karabakh, the place ethnic Armenians had loved de facto independence because the mid-Nineties. Nearly your complete inhabitants of 100,000 individuals fled to Armenia inside days.
Russia had posted peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh after the final main struggle between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2020 however mentioned this week it had begun withdrawing them. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is because of meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.
Russia, distracted by its struggle in Ukraine, dangers shedding affect within the Caucasus area, which it sees as its historic sphere of affect.
America and the European Union have additionally been urgent the 2 sides to achieve a peace deal.