Armenian PM: We’ll hand Azerbaijan some territory to avoid a new war

YEREVAN, Armenia — Armenia must hand over four frontier villages to Azerbaijan and return to its Soviet-era borders as part of a push for peace, the country’s prime minister has said, warning the alternative is another round of bloody fighting between the two South Caucasus nations.

On a visit to the frontier Tuesday, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said the government has decided to demarcate and delimit the entire border, including returning areas that fall in Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territory but have been controlled by Armenia since the fall of the Soviet Union.

“Our policy is that we must prevent a war — we must not allow a war to start,” he said, arguing Armenia could face an attack “by the end of the week” if it doesn’t cede the villages.

While Azerbaijan has demanded the return of the exclaves, Yerevan hoped they could form part of an exchange, with Azerbaijani troops withdrawing from the estimated 215 square kilometers of Armenian territory they took during a brief invasion in 2022. According to Pashinyan, that deal was refused and the villages must be returned to ensure Azerbaijan does not launch another offensive.

No mention was made of whether Azerbaijan would agree to hand over an Armenian exclave within its borders, roughly equal in size to the four villages.

The statement came as NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg visited Armenia, praising the country’s growing support for Ukraine, and said the alliance will support its “sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Armenia has sought closer ties with the West since the start of Russia’s all-out war in Ukraine, with Pashinyan telling POLITICO last year that Moscow is no longer a reliable security guarantor.

On Tuesday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev visited the former Nagorno-Karabakh region, inside his country’s borders but which was until last year under Armenian control since a war in the 1990s. An Azerbaijani offensive in September conquered the territory, triggering a mass exodus of its 100,000 Armenian residents.