Residents of border Armenian villages continue protests

PanARMENIAN.Net - Residents of several Armenian communities in the northeastern Tavush province continued protests into the morning of Monday, April 22 – days after the authorities of Armenia and Azerbaijan announced a border delimitation deal under which Baku will regain control of four formerly Azeri-populated villages in the area.

RFE/RL’s Armenian Service reports that people in the villages of Kirants and Baghanis, in particular, blocked traffic at sections of the road linking their villages to the towns of Ijevan and Noyemberian, respectively.

The protesters said they were not planning to travel to Yerevan and expected officials to arrive at the scene.

Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan is expected to meet with protesters later on Monday.

Following the eighth round of talks between Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian and his Azerbaijani counterpart Shahin Mustafayev that was held at an undisclosed section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border on April 19 the parties announced a preliminary agreement that the initial stage of the delimitation process will involve sections between four villages in the territory of Armenia’s Tavush province and four abandoned villages that used to be part of Azerbaijan’s Qazax district in the Soviet times.

The delimitation on the mentioned sections is to be completed by the middle of May, the parties agreed.