EU welcomes Armenia-Azerbaijan “progress”

PanARMENIAN.Net - The EU has welcomed“progress” made in the framework of the Armenia-Azerbaijan border delimitation process, based on the 1991 Almaty agreement, and more specifically the protocol signed during the 9th meeting of the border commissions of Armenia and Azerbaijan on Wednesday 15 May, leading to an agreement on several sections of the border.

“The EU encourages the parties to take further decisive steps to tackle other outstanding bilateral issues and remains committed to supporting the efforts aimed at bringing sustainable and lasting peace to the South Caucasus region,” the Delegation of the European Union to Armenia said in a statement.

Residents of border villages and Armenia’s opposition have been staging rallies and civil disobedience campaigns to express outrage over the government’s decision to cede part of a border village in the country’s northern Tavush province to Azerbaijan.

The area is one of four border territories which Yerevan has controversially agreed to give up as part of what it calls a demarcation of local sections of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. While several other Tavush villages would be affected by the territorial concession, the village of Kirants would lose not only agricultural land but also some of its houses and a key bridge connecting it to the rest of the country. This is why it has been the epicenter of protests in Tavush against the planned land handover.