Baku,Armenia and Azerbaijan announced on Tuesday they had started fixing their border, as part of normalisation efforts between the arch foes that had been locked in a decades-long territorial conflict.
Last month, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan agreed to Baku’s demand to return four frontier villages that were part of Azerbaijan when it was part of the Soviet Union.
The two countries reconfirmed last week to advance on border delimitation in the area based on Soviet-era maps — a decision that sparked protests among the residents of nearby Armenian villages.
On Tuesday, the two countries’ interior ministries announced the beginning of delimitation works on the ground.
Azerbaijan said expert groups are conducting “clarification of coordinates based on geodesic study of the terrain,” while Armenia ruled out “the transfer of any parts of Armenia’s sovereign territory” to Baku as a result of the delimitati
Fresh rallies erupted in Armenia following the announcement.
Dozens of protesters blocked the crucial Armenia-Georgia highway at several points, including near Lake Sevan and the town of Noyemberyan, close to the border with Azerbaijan, Armenian media reported.
The four abandoned settlements which are to be returned to Azerbaijan — Lower Askipara, Baghanis Ayrum, Kheirimly, and Gizilhajili — were taken over by Armenian forces in the 1990s, forcing their ethnic Azerbaijani residents to flee.
