The government insisted until recently that those maps should serve as a basis for the border delimitation and demarcation process. It cited them to prove that Azerbaijani troops seized Armenian territory during border clashes in 2021 and 2022. Baku rejected that mechanism favored by Yerevan.
“Those maps are not the only maps that should be used or, I think, will be used in the delimitation process because there are questions that are not answered by them,” Grigorian told members of the Armenian parliament committee on defense and security.
“I think that referencing a single map would be very risky at this or any other stage,” he said.
Grigorian refused to explain that assertion, saying that he will go into details if he meets with the lawmakers behind the closed doors. He addressed the panel as it discussed an Armenian-Azerbaijani agreement on the border delimitation in advance of its likely ratification by the National Assembly.
The agreement signed on August 30 involves “regulations” for joint activities of Armenian and Azerbaijani government commissions dealing with the delimitation process. It says that the process will be based, unless agreed otherwise, on the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration in which newly independent ex-Soviet republics recognized each other’s Soviet-era borders.
Armenia - Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian meets with lawmakers, October 21, 2024.
The six other articles of the agreed regulations are short on specifics. They do not say which maps, if any, will be used by the sides. Opposition parliamentarians again pounced on this fact during Monday’s committee meeting.
The deal also does not specify which sections of the border will be delimited first and when. Armenian opposition lawmakers say it will therefore not prevent Azerbaijan from demanding more Armenian territorial concessions. They say that Baku will agree to delimit only those border sections where it could make further territorial gains dangerous for Armenia’s national security.
Grigorian, who heads the Armenian delegation in border talks with Baku, sought to dispel such concerns, saying that that sequence is to be decided by consensus. “Neither side could come say ‘let’s continue [the delimitation process] at this section,’” he said.
The border agreement was signed by Grigorian and his Azerbaijani counterpart Shahin Mustafayev more than four months after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian controversially agreed to cede four disputed border areas to Azerbaijan. The unilateral land transfer sparked massive anti-government demonstrations in Yerevan in May and June.
Pashinian claimed in March that Azerbaijan will attack Armenia unless it regains control of those areas. One of the opposition lawmakers, Kristine Vartanian, on Monday pressed Grigorian to clarify whether he heard such threats from Azerbaijani officials during talks. The vice-premier did not give her a clear answer.