Armenia returned four border villages to Azerbaijan on Friday (May 24) that it had captured in the 1990s, Armenian security services and an Azerbaijani government official said. A new step towards normalization of bilateral relations after decades of territorial disputes.
Armenian border guards “started officially guarding” the new demarcation line approved by the two countries in mid-May, Armenian services said.
Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev confirmed that the four villages of the Gazakh (Tavouch, in Armenian) region: Baganis, Ashaghy (Voskepar, in Armenian), Kheyrimli (Kirants, in Armenian) and Ghizilhajili (Berkaber, in Armenian) had returned “under the control of the border guards of the Republic of Azerbaijan.”
The two Caucasus neighbors have repeatedly clashed over control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The first war, in the 1990s, was won by Armenia, leaving more than 30,000 dead.
Protests against territorial concessions in Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan then regained control of part of the region in the fall of 2020, before taking the entire region after a lightning offensive in September 2023, driving more than 100,000 Armenians out of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The implementation of the May agreement, which covers a 12.70 kilometer-long border section, marks an important step towards a comprehensive peace agreement, which Baku and Yerevan are now trying to achieve.
It nevertheless sparked strong protest in Armenia. Thousands of people demonstrated on May 9 in Yerevan, demanding the resignation of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
This demonstration was the culmination of several weeks of demonstrations and road blockades in the affected border region, followed by a major march of some 160 kilometers to Yerevan, led by the charismatic archbishop of this region, Bagrat Galstanian. More than 150 protesters were briefly arrested.
But the movement since then seems to have run out of steam. If this were to be confirmed, Mr. Pashinian, a former journalist who has led Armenia since 2018, will be able to boast of great resilience. He had already survived calls to resign after the Armenian defeats of 2020 and 2023.