BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 3. Claims on the so-called "occupation" of some square kilometers by Azerbaijan are absolutely unfounded, the country's Presidential Representative for Special Assignments Elchin Amirbayov told Estonian Public Broadcasting (ERR) company, Trend reports.
"Let's look at the history of the issue. For 28 years, the territory that Armenia may consider its own, was occupied by the country's armed forces. If you look at the map, the southern part of our conditional border – from the Azerbaijani side, these are Zangilan, Gubadli, and other districts – was completely under the armed occupation of Armenia," he said. "Accordingly, there was no border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, or what Armenians named the so-called 'Republic of Artsakh'. This is, of course, their assessment – that Azerbaijan allegedly 'invaded' their territory. We have a completely different position."
"On the contrary, we believe that a part of Azerbaijani territory is still under the occupation of Armenia. We are talking about four villages in the Gazakh district north of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, which were occupied by Armenia in the early 1990s. We are not talking about enclaves; these are villages in the Gazakh district," the official explained.
Amirbayov mentioned that besides these, there are three Azerbaijani enclaves and one Armenian enclave that are controlled by the opposite side.
"So, before making any unfounded claims that 'someone has occupied my territory', I would advise our Armenian neighbors to take the process of demarcation more seriously, because the only measure of which territory belongs to whom is the agreement that we will reach on the demarcation of our future state border," he noted. "In the absence of such an agreement, talking about someone occupying something is counterproductive. From our side, we have done everything to demonstrate to the Armenian side our sincere interest in completing this work."
"In the last meeting of the delegations of the two countries, which I mentioned, the Azerbaijani side proposed to the Armenian side to consider and agree on normative documents that would lay the foundation for the work of the demarcation commission. This includes regulations, as well as supporting documents, including maps from different periods, which should be accepted by both sides as a starting point," Amirbayov said.
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