Azerbaijan is demanding the immediate return of four villages Armenia is occupying, Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev announced on Saturday.
Mustafayev's office said the state commissions of Azerbaijan and Armenia met on Thursday for the seventh time to discuss the delimitation of their mutual borders. The neighboring countries are continuing talks on a peace treaty.
The statements slammed as "false" the reports claiming that Azerbaijan had occupied 31 Armenian villages, noting that "it is completely unfounded to say that the lands belonging to 31 villages of Armenia have been 'occupied' until the borders are determined."
"Four villages that are under Armenia's occupation and are not exclaves (Baganis Ayr, Aşagi Eskipara, Heyrimli and Kizilhacili) unquestionably belong to Azerbaijan and should be returned immediately.
"The issue of the return of four exclave villages (Upper Eskipara, Sofulu, Berhudarli and Kerki), which are under the occupation of Armenia, will be resolved within the framework of the border determination process," it said.
Relations between Baku and Yerevan have remained tense since 1991, when the Armenian military illegally occupied Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.
Most of the territory was liberated by Azerbaijan during a war in the fall of 2020, which ended after a Russian-brokered peace agreement that also opened the door to normalization.
Azerbaijan established full sovereignty in Karabakh after a counterterrorism operation in September 2023, after which separatist forces in the region surrendered.
The sides previously said a peace agreement could have been signed by the end of last year, but internationally mediated peace talks have failed to yield a breakthrough so far.
In February, the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia met in Berlin for talks hosted by their German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, but little progress was made.
However, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov lauded the meeting as “valuable in enhancing the understanding of the situation and establishing a foundation for future engagements” despite the sides not discussing any draft texts or specific articles.
Bayramov mentioned that in previous negotiations, Armenia emphasized the rights of Armenians in Karabakh and had a particular expectation in this regard.
Azerbaijan, on the other hand, argued that the peace agreement should regulate the relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and that issues related to Armenians in Azerbaijan are a domestic matter.
Azerbaijan demanded the withdrawal of illegal Armenian forces from its territory, which Armenia claimed it couldn't control. Bayramov stated that this issue is no longer on the negotiation table after the counterterrorism operation on Sept. 19. Armenia did not bring up the issue in the negotiations.
