Narek Karapetyan: Azerbaijan must return tens of thousands of  hectares to Armenia as part of delimitation process

ArmInfo.Azerbaijan must return tens of thousands of hectares of territory to Armenia as part of the border delimitation and demarcation process. Narek Karapetyan, head of the Strong Armenia faction, stated this in a conversation with journalists in parliament on August 24.

Specifically, he said, this concerns hundreds of hectares in  Paravakar and Goris, thousands of hectares in Jermuk, and so on.   This, according to Karapetyan, will be an indicator of Azerbaijan's  readiness for a long- term and guaranteed peace with Armenia.   "Azerbaijan must first and foremost return the lands that should be  under Armenian control. We're talking hundreds, thousands, and even  tens of thousands of hectares.  Only then will we understand whether  this country is looking toward long-term peace or is trying to  pressure us from all sides and seize everything it can," the  politician stated.

Regarding the future transfer of the Armenian village of Tigranashen  to the Ararat region under the guise of so-called enclaves, he noted  that during the pre-election period, the authorities did not inform  the village residents of their intention to hand it over (notably,  the ruling Civil Contract party received the most votes there in the  Armenian parliamentary elections - ed.).

Furthermore, as Karapetyan noted, they used the term "space  optimization" at the time. "It's unclear what was discussed then. But  the point is that there was no such talk about surrendering  Tigranashen. And when numerous opposition figures spoke about it,  they were told they were always talking only about negative things.   We, however, continue to insist that if the Armenian people don't  come to their senses, we will face even greater problems in the  future. They will do the same in Tigranashen as they did in Artsakh.   And when we warned that they (the Azerbaijanis - ed.) intended to  come to Armenia, we were again told we were spreading 'bad news.'  Apparently, we should have only gone to concerts," the faction leader  quipped.

Karapetyan believes that difficult days for the country are still  ahead. "We will do everything to bring about change. But if it  doesn't happen, we will look back on this day as a time when we took  a favorable position.  Just as we are now forced to say that the  'Trump route' (TRIPP) is a road, not a corridor, so that the next  administration will have room for negotiations," the politician  concluded.

As a reminder, at a briefing on August 20, Pashinyan stated that  Artsvashen is Armenian territory, while Tigranashen (which the  Armenian prime minister referred to by its Azerbaijani name, Karki -  ed.), Barkhudarlu, Sofulu, and Upper Voskepar (for the latter,  Pashinyan again used its Azerbaijani name, Yukhari-Askipara - ed.)  are not.