Azerbaijani army units redeployed on March 30 to more parts of the Lachin district sandwiched between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, completing a change in the route of the Lachin corridor which began last August. Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) said hours later that they advanced up to 300 meters into Armenian territory at five border locations adjacent to the village of Tegh.
Local government officials and farmers said Tegh lost a large part of its agricultural land and pastures. Some of them said that the Azerbaijani military made bigger territorial gains than is admitted by official Yerevan. They dismissed the NSS’s April 1 claims that the situation in that border area “improved significantly” as a result of negotiations held by Armenian and Azerbaijani officials.
Tensions there escalated on April 11 into a skirmish between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces which left at least seven soldiers from both sides dead.
“The Azerbaijanis haven’t retreated a single inch from Tegh’s lands,” one local resident told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Friday. “They are continuing fortification works.”
He was perplexed by Pashinian’s comments made on Thursday. The prime minister told reporters that the “problematic section” of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border around Tegh was 5 kilometers long and that the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides “ascertained” 1.4 kilometers of it after the deadly fighting.
“That means Armenian border guards are deployed at a certain distance from that border and Azerbaijani border guards are deployed at a certain distance from that border,” he said.
Pashinian did not clarify whether the Azerbaijani troops withdrew from that 1.4-kilometer stretch or whether Yerevan does not consider it Armenian territory anymore as a result of the unofficial border delimitation.
“Again, they haven’t retreated a single inch,” countered the Tegh farmer, who did not want to be identified. “What has been ascertained?”
Tegh residents are still awaiting concrete actions by the Armenian government, he said, warning that their patience is running out.
The governor of Armenia’s Syunik province encompassing Tegh said earlier this week that the government will compensate villagers for the loss of their land holdings and main source of income.
The Armenian opposition blames Pashinian for the fresh territorial gains made by Azerbaijan. Opposition leaders say he should have ordered the Armenian army or border guards to take up positions along the Armenian side of the Tegh border section ahead of the Azerbaijani advance.
