Foreign Minister: We are not negotiating surrender of villages in  Tavush region to Azerbaijan

ArmInfo. Not a single government official of Armenia has the right to negotiate the surrender of this or that village, this or that territory. RA Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan stated on March 15 during a hearing in the RA NA Standing Committee on Foreign Relation, at which the implementation of the RA government program was discussed, opposing MP from the "Armenia" opposition faction Kristina Vardanyan.

The MP, in particular, raised the question of the authorities' 

intentions to hand over four villages in the Tavush region of Armenia 

to Azerbaijan. In addition, the parliamentarian asked the minister 

why it was necessary to ratify the Rome Statute if today the 

authorities are talking about the possibility of withdrawing claims 

in international courts.

In response, Mirzoyan noted that there is no official in Armenia who 

would negotiate with Azerbaijan on the issue of transferring 

villages. As the head of the RA Foreign Ministry emphasized this is 

an axiom that does not require proof. The guarantee of this, the 

minister continued, is legal mechanisms. "We are not negotiating the 

surrender of villages in the Tavush region," the head of the RA 

Foreign Ministry emphasized.

Regarding the issue of the Rome Statute, as the head of the Foreign 

Ministry noted, rumors about any agreements with Azerbaijan on the 

withdrawal of international judicial proceedings are not true. "There 

is no agreement on this matter. Yes, numerous options are being 

discussed, naturally, with the understanding that this may become 

part of the general situation and environment," said the head of the 

RA Foreign Ministry, adding that any actions of the country's 

authorities will be coordinated and discussed in the context common 

diplomatic efforts. In addition, as Mirzoyan noted, the country's 

leadership never said that the Rome Statute was ratified in order to 

"bring Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to trial." "As far as I 

remember, such formulations have never been voiced by Armenian 

officials," noted Ararat Mirzoyan.

Notably, on March 13, in a conversation with journalists, Minister of 

Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of the Republic of 

Armenia Gnel Sanosyan reported that the four villages claimed by 

Azerbaijan were not part of the administrative territory of Armenia. 

He noted that work on delimitation and demarcation in the Tavush 

region has not yet begun, and there are also no specific deadlines. 

At the same time, he emphasized that Armenia continues to demand from 

Azerbaijan the territory of 31 non-enclaved villages under the 

control of the Azerbaijani side.

On March 12, at a press conference, Prime Minister of the Republic of 

Armenia Nikol Pashinyan stated that Yerevan, on the basis of 

reciprocity, can withdraw lawsuits from international courts, but 

this issue should be discussed at the very end of the negotiation 

process, when all the provisions of the peace treaty will be agreed 

upon, and the parties will only have to sign it. Earlier, in their 

justifications for the need to ratify the Rome Statute, the 

authorities announced the possibility of appealing to the ICC against 

the Azerbaijani authorities for committing war crimes on the 

territory of Armenia.