YEREVAN—Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has confirmed the regulations governing the joint activities of the commissions responsible for border demarcation and security with Armenia. This follows the signing of a border demarcation law by Armenian President Vahagn Khachatryan on October 24.
The Armenian National Assembly ratified the regulations on October 23, with only the ruling “Civil Contract” party present, as opposition factions chose to boycott the vote. The bill received 67 votes in favor.
In a press briefing on October 28, Chief of General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces Edward Asryan expressed strong agreement with the prime minister on the ongoing border demarcation process, asserting that it aims to restore the Republic of Armenia’s sovereign territory within defined borders. When asked whether Azerbaijan would return the occupied territories of the Republic of Armenia, Asryan stated, “Yes, I am confident. It is possible through peaceful demarcation efforts.”
Armenian National Security Service Director Armen Abazyan echoed these sentiments, confirming the continuation of the border demarcation process and the signing of relevant regulations by Armenia and Azerbaijan. When asked whether Azerbaijani forces will withdraw from sovereign Armenian territory, Abazyan replied, “I believe yes.”
Abazyan also addressed security operations along the Armenian-Iranian border, noting a preliminary agreement for Armenian border guard forces to assume full control of the Agarak border checkpoint starting January 1, 2025. Ongoing discussions are focused on potential joint border services with Russian guards along the broader Armenian-Iranian border.
However, he clarified that no decisions have been made to grant complete responsibility of border security to Armenia. When asked about Armenia’s capacity to implement such measures, he stated, “In a phased approach, yes, but there is no such decision at this time.”
Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has stated Ankara’s commitment to facilitating the peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Addressing the Turkish Cabinet on October 29, 2024, Erdoğan expressed strong support for initiatives undertaken by the “fraternal” nations and assured that Turkey will closely monitor ongoing developments.
“We believe there is a unique opportunity for lasting peace,” Erdoğan stated, emphasizing hope that “external forces” would not undermine the process. He did not specify which external forces. “We expect to hear positive news soon, and we will continue to work in coordination with our Azerbaijani brothers.”
Erdoğan also highlighted the effectiveness of the “3+3” regional platform involving Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran and Russia, which recently convened on October 18 in Istanbul. He indicated Turkey’s desire to transform it into a more formal institutional framework.
While Armenian government leaders offer assurances, MP Tigran Abrahamyan of the opposition “I Have Honor” faction expressed skepticism about the likelihood that Azerbaijani troops will eventually withdraw from Armenian territory as part of the demarcation process.
Abrahamyan noted that signed agreements, international resolutions and international law have not prevented nations around the world from committing acts of aggression or occupying foreign territories. He underscored that the agreements reached by Armenian authorities are vulnerable, and Azerbaijan has the flexibility to act based on evolving circumstances. He warned that signing incomplete border demarcation provisions poses a potential risk, which could lead to unpredictable escalations.
In an interview with the Weekly, “Armenia” faction MP Garnik Danielyan expressed strong criticism of the Armenian government’s handling of the border demarcation process. He argued that the signing of the regulatory documents was rushed, suggesting that Azerbaijan’s president directed Armenian officials to do so during the BRICS summit in Kazan.
“These individuals have ceded a portion of our homeland to Azerbaijan without establishing clear regulations. The most protected part of Tavush has been given to Azerbaijan, and Armenia has gained nothing in return,” he said. “Bayramov’s office has declared, ‘Forget about the 31 settlements. We have nothing to offer you,’” referring to the Armenian villages occupied by Azerbaijan.
This diplomatic activity unfolded in the wake of the 16th BRICS summit, held in Kazan from October 22-24, 2024. Regional stability and cooperation were key topics of discussion. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Pres. Aliyev met on the sidelines of the summit on October 24.
The leaders discussed advancing the bilateral peace agenda, including the peace treaty, border demarcation and other areas of mutual interest. They tasked their foreign ministers with continuing bilateral negotiations on the “Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and Inter-State Relations,” aiming to finalize and sign the agreement “in the shortest possible period,” according to a brief statement from PM Pashinyan’s office.
During the conference, PM Pashinyan addressed Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, noting that at least 80-90% of the draft peace treaty with Baku is complete. He stated that mutual commitments to refrain from territorial claims, non-use of force and the establishment of diplomatic relations have been agreed upon.
The prime minister added that Armenia has proposed to facilitate border and customs control procedures to ensure Azerbaijan’s connectivity with its exclave Nakhichevan. He remarked that the text of the peace treaty, as currently agreed upon, establishes a strong and durable foundation for lasting peace and invited Azerbaijan to sign the agreement. While Armenia has recently proposed signing an interim agreement and resolving remaining issues at a later date, Azerbaijan has rejected this proposal.
In an article published by the “Genesis Armenia” think tank, Armen Hovasapyan criticized Pashinyan for appearing amicable with a leader who has publicly insulted him, questioning the motivations behind this dynamic. Hovasapyan speculated that discussions at the summit may have included control over a corridor through Syunik, possibly involving a customs structure under the BRICS framework, which could satisfy all involved parties.
Ultimately, Hovasapyan argued that upon Pashinyan’s return from Kazan, Armenia is in a weakened position, particularly in light of the loss of Artsakh
Hoory Minoyan
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Aliyev : “You are a dhimmi. You will do as I say”
Pashinyan : “Yes, I am and will do, Pasha. What do you want me to do, Pasha?”
Aliyev : “Get on your knees and give me a foot rub”
Pashinyan : “Yes, Pasha! Three bags full, Pasha!”
Whatever spin Pashinyan tries to put on the border delimitation agreement, on the border demarcation law he passed in parliament and on the upcoming “peace treaty” with Azerbaijan, it is bound to be a lose-win situation for Armenia, for all the aforementioned reasons.
The secret negotiations, his deliberate vagueness about them and trying to put a positive spin on them, are just a foretaste of the nasty outcome awaiting Armenia, once the final border treaty and “peace treaty” are announced to the public.
Pashinian is a weak leader, he owes Soros his …..
Reading the 2 previous posts, we can say Good Bye to Armenia. Armenia should have had nuclear weapons long ago, for their protection.
Shame, Shame, shame Nickol Pashinyan
Nuclear weapons? Not that they’ve ensured the invulnerability of Russia and Israel in their current conflicts lately. White elephants given the realties of the world it seems..
@Charles You are man of my heart
I agree with you – Ermenistan must get rid of kartoshkas and be pro Turkiye like Charles says
I moved to Armenia. Let the ones who bla bla do half of what me or my family did within years for the people of this country. Those who talk escaped from their Soviet Paradise several years ago. It is even questionable If they visit Armenia as a tourist from time to time. There is nothing they can do against Turkey either. Turkey will beat them with wet sticks will open a pit, throw them inside and would even pee on them after. I know what I am saying. Turkey is a professional murderer country when it wants with Hundred Thousands of Hitmen with NATO expertise accumulated in 72 Years. I don’t even add the Ottoman and Seljuk Periods in that. Turkey became member of NATO in 1952. This is a not a joke. They know to fight and destroy. 44 Days War was the work of the Turkish Command not Azeri. They have NATO Trained Generals. 18 Million Kurds within Turkey can not beat them and Kurds learn to shoot at the age of 10. Kurds are a tribal society armed to the teeth. Only a superpower like America or something like Britain can destroy Turkey. Not the Russias or the Irans or any type of 3rd World Country. Russia would be afraid to have any type of clash with Turks today and Russia will collapse in the future.. It is crystal clear. I told that 3 years ago. Russia is an archaic country with gang wars. Wildberries Case is a small example on that. Russia is on the course of going down. That’s why the best choice for Armenia’s Defense is to collaborate with the West like Turks did in the past so they will learn and also develop in military affairs. What they learned from Soviets doesn’t fit for the 21st Century. That time is over. New age, new rules.
Let there be no doubt in the mind of any responsible and patriotic Armenian that Turkey is not our friend but our real enemy and Turkish leaders are a bunch of wolves in sheep’s clothing. We must never trust them and do everything to keep them out of our backyard. Successive Turkish leaders have denied and continue to deny the premeditated and state-sponsored mass extermination and the genocide of 1,500,000 indigenous Armenians which was put into action under the cover of WWI to Turkify and to Islamize what was left of the defeated terrorist Ottoman Empire in order to steal their ancient homeland as a means to deny Armenians their national aspirations. This was the Turkish way to try to put an end to Armenian statehood once and for all which their own criminal non-native Turkish tribes from Central Asia had seized in centuries past. Turkish leaders are thieves and criminals and Armenian leaders who cozy up to them are criminal collaborators. When the biggest supporters of our traitor prime minister are those who glorify the mass murderers of the Armenians should tell you all you need to know about these Turkish hyenas.
Terrorist Turkey joined NATO in 1952 in order to save itself from the Soviet takeover. The price of admission was to send some troops to the Korean War. Turkey shares no values with countries in the NATO alliance whatsoever. Turkey is a threat to NATO and Europe in general. Their politics is one of bribery and blackmail. Turkish leaders are a bunch of scoundrels and opportunistic predatory hyenas and are playing both NATO and Russia for their own self-interests. They backstab NATO member countries with impunity and get away with it because NATO uses Armenian territories occupied by Turkey, Western Armenia, as western military bases in the region. They insult and blackmail NATO but never leave the alliance because they need their advanced weapons to safeguard all that they have stolen from the natives over the centuries by way of terrorism and violence. The ultimate fascist Turkish plan is the realization of the dream of the creation of the mythical and miserably failed so-called “Land of Turan” which would stretch from Turkey to the gates of China but it can’t be realized and materialized without undermining the Armenian statehood and by cutting through sovereign Armenian territory. To accomplish this failed dream but having no reason to be hostile towards Armenia, since they already got from the Armenians all that they wanted through mass murder and genocide a century ago, they are exploiting the conflict in the South Caucasus conducting proxy wars against the Armenians on behalf of the terrorist Azerbaijani cesspool to that end.
Both Turkey and artificial Azerbaijan, which Turkey helped to invent in 1918, engaged in Armenian killings. Several of those on Armenian Operation Nemesis hit list organized in 1920s to pursue and to punish the Turkish perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide on the run were in fact Azerbaijani leaders who together with their Turkish brothers-in-crime committed unspeakable violence against the native Armenian populations in Armenian territories under Azerbaijani occupation. The joint Turkish-Azerbaijani plan is to reduce Armenia into a little landlocked island with no connection to the outside world so as to make Armenia dependent on deniers and successors of those who committed the Armenian Genocide. The existence of Armenian statehood right in-between these two terrorist states and acting as a physical barrier keeping them apart and from coming together to unite for further violence against the natives whose lands they occupy is like a piece of bone stuck in Turkish throat they can neither get rid of nor digest. Last but not least, those who glorify terrorist genocidal Turkey and Turkish leadership should be prosecuted criminally!
Pashinyan is realistic and knows who and what is available to him in case of conflict (zero) . So posturing and risk taking is not an option . His predecessors failed miserably in laying the ground for an effective and robust defence of Artsakh or for a settlement with Turkey and the Azeris . Ter Petrosyan was right . Game over now .
Pashinyan finding himself in such dire situation was of his own doing. Incompetent and dysfunctional Pashinyan’s provocative and irresponsible speeches in Artsakh and other places soon after being elected as Prime Minister was the reason why today he has very little choices, if any. I mean how naive, perhaps deliberate and by design, one has to be to be standing in front of the Artsakh Armenians, be standing on enemy territory in hindsight based on his current treasonous stand on Artsakh, and be making provocative statements scrapping all that his predecessors had accomplished through negotiations and giving the enemy reasons to discredit him and to take military action with full Turkish direct military backing?
His predecessors through their strength had kept the enemy at bay for decades and had handed them their utmost devastating and humiliating defeat previously and so much so that they were militarily impotent without Turkey. His predecessors, despite their failures diplomatically, were defending Artsakh from the enemy quite well and the enemy lasting less than a week during the 4-day war of April 2016 initiated by the enemy with all their military might was a proof of that until Pashinyan, the current traitor-in-chief, dismantled the army, retired all battle-hardened Armenian military generals and officers who had served in the previous wars and with many victories in the battleground under their belts, replacing them with inexperienced ones obedient and subserviant to him. And one can argue that Levon Ter-Petrosyan played a role in all of this when in his many interviews pre 2020 joint Turkjish-Azerbaijani invasion of liberated Armenian territories claimed that the fate of Artskah is not in the hands of the Armenians but at the hands of the international community when that very same international community had violated Serbian sovereign territory and carved out a state for Kosovns, with no connection to that land, and based on People’s Right to Self-Determination which was being denied to indigenous Armenians in return for massive investments and access to Caspian oil & gas!
Armenia had gained nothing in law 1994 – 2020 over Arktash. Perhaps he goaded Azerbaijan which by the time he took office had eclipsed Armenia. The international community had little interest in the conflict which was mistaken for tacit support it seems. However the position was favouring Azerbaijan on the grounds of it having been part of Azeri SSR it seems many Armenians ignored this to their calamity. If it really was the devastating victory then why didn’t Baku formally acknowledge losses and accept the status quo like Germany post 1945 the reason is of course is that whilst they lost it was only an adverse ceasefire for them. Sadly thinking and acting as though it was a greater victory than it was has led to the joke being on Armenia and it’s people. At least the issues Russia has faced in Ukraine has largely put paid to the notion of had we been fully concordant with Russia then they wouldn’t have allowed this as their military was so amazing and capable which was pedaled rather from 2020 conflict being somewhat debunked in 2022 and Russia failures to uphold it’s obligations to the Armenian population in 2023 .
@Charles,
The fact that Azerbaijan requested or agreed to a ceasefire in 1994 spoke volumes about the state of disarray they were in. No one knows the mentality of our enemies like we do and I know it very well. For these pseudo-Turkic people admitting loss with such devastation to a small landlocked Christian nation in a sea of Muslims was worse than taking a poison pill. But that was the reality because knowing their TRUE character, and hollow bravado, they had to save face to fight another day. The Armenian leaders of the time unfortunately accepted this false ceasefire instead of forcing them into full capitulation. That was their biggest mistake of the war imposed on them by the enemy. I’m sure Russia played a major role in this because they helped create this artificial state, a gas station disguised as a country, in the first place and they were not going to see it taken apart and destroyed.
Also, let’s not forget the “Operation Ring” conducted by the Soviet Red Army along with Azerbaijani internal police force in the dwindling years of the Soviet Union to bring Artsakh back under Azerbaijan-SSR control as a final stand or hope to avoid the disintegration of the USSR but of course to no avail in hindsight. I believe these are some of the reasons why the enemy was not forced into full capitulation among many other reasons. The Russians had a hand in it. Strong Armenia was a liability for future Russia and a weak or disintegrated Azerbaijan of their own making was against their interests.
Ararat
Azerbaijan was clearly ailing in 1994 when it’s lines collapsed after three years of attrition. Whether Armenia would have been able to reach Baku is unclear after all it was fairly maxed out at the time. Also to note international protocols would have meant Armenia was clearly invading at that point would likely have incurred UN sanctions even though it was far more focused on Bosnia at the time. Perhaps as Azerbaijan became more desperate Turkey might have intervened as it does with the Kurds in Iraq and Syria although at the time was able to be warned off by Russia who did help to broker the ceasefire. International protocols since 1945 have been quite rigid regarding boundaries and without meaningful support it wasn’t possible to formally incorporate into Armenia and a notorious stringing out and umming and erring after 1994 although at times a settlement which would have preserved some of gains was close but a mixture of hubris and Russia wanting it to fester despite never affirming support was opposed to the prospect of Armenia withdrawing from the areas of Azerbaijan flanking Soviet N-K which proves its desire to leave the issue hanging so it maintain influence. As for Christian nation, Georgia was barely sympathetic although resisted Azeri cajolments although at the time before the pipelines had less clout upon Georgia. Iran and Jordan provided support for Armenia despite being Muslims so it’s wasn’t a particular religion clash although a factor. Whilst the USA isn’t as munificent as it portrays itself as, Russia clearly believes in having weak and helpless isolated nations so “mother Russia” can play a big daddy role. Take note of Russian ally Syria compared to US ally Israel. The sino Soviet split was essentially about power sharing disputes between said communist comrades. Whilst no one has the advantage at all times the Turks who had been beaten by the Chinese, Arabs and Persians at times clearly are quite game to have spread as hegemons from Siberia westwards in Eurasia. A serious error was the policy of sale of national assets to Russia and strong military tie in which actually meant Russia could monopolise and dominate Armenia who gradually lost their advantage vis a vis Azerbaijan and was clearly exposed in 2020 hence questioning the tie in in recent years is quite reasonable as Russia didn’t uphold it’s ally Armenia advantage with Azerbaijan quite unlike say the USA and Israel…
In 5 years There will be a smaller rump armenia centered around yerevan, wholly dependent on the turks, with no common border with Iran. And a guy called Pashoglu worth 7 billion dollars living in a chateau in france.
Vartan – time will tell
Of course, the Turk lovers on here preacb defeatism and despair.
That’s how these dhimmis can serve their Pashas.
If Pashinyan had an ounce of common sense, he’d fly to America to congratulate Donald Trump, the 45th and 47th President of the United States, on his astounding victory!
But he won’t.
Pashinyan has all the intellect of the carpet salesman that he is.
Donald Trump is no friend of Armenia actually. The customary congratulations via twitter and diplomatic cable is sufficiently appropriate no need to ingratiate undignifiedly
Brother Charles,
I am sad Trump won. He will end war in Ukraine, which will be bad for Turkish invasion of Armenia. You have been my biggest ally here, promoting Turkish cause against Russian kartoskhas.
@Charles, what should next talking point be for beautiful Turks against Russian kartoskhas. You inspire me
Well, there you have it, everybody!
Both Sevan Peter B and Charlie arre Turk lovers.
They admit it.
Robert Whig
@ Sevan Peter B speaks for himself in my opinion is some kind of troll and it’s bizarre the editors allow his eccentric posts which go far beyond constructive criticism. Whichever way the Kremlin lies and Soviet ignorance which have poisoned and brainwashed Armenia are coming to an end Russia own public failures in Ukraine are debunking many myths.
Way to go Charlie, – birds of a feather flock together
you and Sevan Peter B are cut from the same cloth – notorious Russophobes and rabid Turcophiles
Stop deflecting and embrace the fact you’re a turkish agent
Yakub I’ll leave Turkophile actions to Russia they have form in that regard and excellent at hoodwinking Armenians. It’s quite flattering I’ve been claimed to be an American by a Kremlin poster here i said I was British actually and he then said i was a Chatham House person which was amazing flattery if true I would be much richer. Now I’ve become a Turkish agent a true shape shifter it seems all because I say Armenians need to be realistic about Russia and due to the issues with Turkey and Azerbaijan have been far too fulsome towards Russia who has prioritised Turkey and Azerbaijan more often than Armenia.
@Charlie
Turk lover!
Robert Whig in Canada? and yet praising Russia With his ad homiems about any suggestion that Russia might not actually be first highest and best and actually gets on quite well with Turkey and Azerbaijan and is busy making a fool of itself in Ukraine as well as demonstrating what a hypocrite it is vis a vis it’s stance over the 1994 – 2020 Armenia control of parts of Azerbaijan.