Armenian, Azerbaijani delimitation commissions agree protocol describing some border sections

YEREVAN/BAKU. May 16 (Interfax) - The Armenian and Azerbaijani border delimitation commissions on Wednesday agreed their joint protocol describing sections of the border between populated localities in Armenia's Tavush region and the Gazakh district of Azerbaijan.

The commission's latest meeting was chaired by Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Shahin Mustafayev, the Armenian Foreign Ministry's press service said.

"In accordance with the protocol of the eighth meeting on April 19, 2024 adopted by them, the participants in the commission's meeting discussed the accomplished work and agreed a protocol describing sections of the border immediately between Baganis Ayrum (Azerbaijan) and Baganis (Armenia), Ashagy Eskipara (Azerbaijan) and Voskepar (Armenia), Heyrimli (Azerbaijan) and Kirants (Armenia), Kyzyl Hajili (Azerbaijan) and Berkaber (Armenia) in order to bring them into compliance with the legally founded inter-republican border that existed within the Soviet Union as the time of its breakup. The protocol description was drawn up jointly by the parties, taking into account the coordinates specified based on geodesic measurements in the area in accordance with the 1976 topographic map of the Soviet General Staff, which passed the verification procedure in 1979," the Azerbaijani deputy prime minister's press service said.

Armenian and Azerbaijani border guards will be put on duty at the delimited border within the next nine days.

"This will happen within the next eight to nine days, but a little later in the most sensitive part of the village of Kirants, where some details will have to be specified additionally," the Armenpress Armenian state-run news agency said, citing the executive office of the Armenian deputy prime minister.

"The border is already considered to be delimited in this sector [the Tavush region]," it said.

Border markers will be installed later in Kirants, which an interstate motorway to Georgia runs through, due to the need to move the road, it said.

"There will be a problem related to the road's transfer. It will be solved within two to three months," it said.

Kirants will receive some 25 hectares of agricultural land it had no access to previously, the executive office said.

The delimitation process should continue in other border sections "based on the same logic and the same principles," it said.