On Friday, Armenia returned to Azerbaijan four border towns that it controlled in the 1990s, in a new step towards normalizing relations between the two rivals after decades-long disputes and wars.
The step, which sparked widespread protests in Armenia, represents an important development towards reaching a comprehensive peace agreement after years of fruitless talks mediated by Russia and other countries.
The two former Soviet republics located in the Caucasus fought two wars in the 1990s and in 2020 in order to control the Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh, then Baku launched a lightning attack in September 2023 that allowed it to regain control of this region and expel the Armenian separatists who had been ruling it for three decades.
This forced more than 100,000 people to flee to Armenia.
The Armenian security services confirmed on Friday that their border guards were stationed in new locations in the east of the country, as part of a recently concluded agreement on border demarcation requiring the ceding of villages to Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev, for his part, announced that Baku assumed supervision of the four towns.
Last March, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan agreed to return the four abandoned villages that his country’s forces controlled in the 1990s, as part of efforts to establish a permanent peace agreement between the two countries. On May 16, the two countries agreed to demarcate 12.7 km of their border and return the villages of Baganis Erum, Ashaghi Askibara, Khyrimli and Gizilhajili to Azerbaijan.
Last week, Pashinyan praised the agreement, considering it “a very important step to strengthen Armenia’s sovereignty and independence” and that it “elevates security and stability to a new level.”
The area ceded by Yerevan has strategic importance for landlocked Armenia. It overlooks parts of a vital highway leading to Georgia.
Residents of nearby villages say that the move will isolate them from the rest of the country and accused Pashinyan of giving up lands without guarantees in return. Pashinyan said that Armenia will build new roads in the region in the next few months.
The Prime Minister’s move sparked weeks of anti-government protests in Armenia, and thousands of demonstrators, led by prominent cleric Bagrat Galestanyan, came out, demanding Pashinyan’s resignation.