Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan reported “certain improvement” of the situation as a result of clarifications of the Armenian and Azerbaijani border guards’ deployment locations in the Tegh-Kornidzor section.
During the government sitting on Thursday, he said that the locations of deployment in seven out of 12km are clarified, while work is still ongoing for the other five kilometers.
The Lachin Corridor is being rerouted due to the opening of the Kornidzor-Tegh road – which is connecting Armenia to the Lachin Corridor. As a result, the Armenian border guards must assume the protection of the 12km section of the Armenia-Azerbaijani border. No direct border protection was carried out in that area neither by Armenia nor Azerbaijan in accordance with a previous agreement on ensuring the temporary route of the Lachin Corridor.
“And as you know, during the assumption of direct border protection some problems emerged, which the NSS informed about, stressing that misinterpretation of maps took place during the deployment of the two sides. In some areas, by our assessment, the Azerbaijani side deployed and conducted engineering works some 100 to 300 meters deep into territory of Armenia. After that, an agreement was reached for cartographers of both sides to clarify the situation. During that time, work has been implemented for clarifying the deployment locations of the border guards. And the situation has improved to some extent. In particular, the deployment locations in 7km of the 12km are clarified, while the work on the other 5km is still in progress,” Pashinyan said.
He reiterated that the Armenian government’s position remains that of avoiding an escalation. Pashinyan expressed hope that the adjustment work will be carried out in a constructive atmosphere.
