In order to stabilize the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, the Armenian side proposed a mirror withdrawal of troops. During the Parliament-Government question-and-answer session Vahagn Aleksanyan, member of the ‘Civil Contract’ faction, asked Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan what ‘mirror withdrawal’ means.
“You are aware that the trilateral statement issued in Sochi on November 26, 2021, signed by the President of Russia, the President of Azerbaijan, and by me, states that the parties agreed to take steps to increase security and stability on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, as well as to start the formation of a bilateral commission on demarcation and delimitation.
In this regard, as we are interested that we must uphold our own agreement, we have made a proposal, and our idea is that the armed forces must mirror withdraw. This means that they must be withdrawn at an equal distance from the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, after which the border guard must be handed over to a limited number of border guards, and as a result, international monitoring must take place in order to implement the agreements reached,” Pashinyan said.
Is there a state border between Armenia and Azerbaijan? According to Pashinyan, the answer to this question is definitely positive, as there was a border yet in the Soviet times, which was delimited.
"With the 1991 agreement on the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States, which was ratified by the parliaments of both Armenia and Azerbaijan, those borders were recognized. Therefore, we think that these agreements should be implemented by this logic,” Pashinyan said.
Nikol Pashinyan stressed that the Armenian side is ready to listen to other proposals as well.
“Our task is for the international community, the Armenian community to be informed about what we are talking about, as there are many baseless speculations on this topic, that the villages will remain defenseless, etc. There is no such thing. But we must also admit that the proposal we are making is not 100 percent appropriate or comfortable for Armenia or uncomfortable for Azerbaijan,” Pashinyan said.
The Prime Minister stated that this does not predetermine the results of further demarcation. It should be the subject of appropriate negotiations.
