Experts warn of dangers of exchange of exclaves and border delimitation between Armenia and Azerbaijan

YEREVAN, September 30. /ARKA/. An exchange of exclaves by Armenia and Azerbaijan may lead to additional defense–related problems for Armenia, geodesist Shahen Shahinyan said on "Minority Opinion" program of Novosti Armenia news agency’s YouTube channel.

There are three Azerbaijani exclaves in Armenia, two in Tavush province and one in Ararat province. The latter is close to Azerbaijani exclave Nakhichevan. There is also one Armenian enclave, a village called Artsvashen in northwestern Azerbaijan.

According to Shahinyan, the only reason why no one is talking about the exclaves today is that there is still no legal basis that can prove their legal existence.

"But if this is issue is raised, we must take into account that the three Azerbaijani enclaves in Armenian territory are located on sections of interstate roads. Consequently, we will have serious problems with interstate roads is case of exchanging the exclaves," he said.

In particular, one of Azerbaijani exclaves in the Ararat region (Tigranashen), is located near the interstate highway M2, connecting the south and north of the country and Armenia with Iran.

"The Armenian exclave in Azerbaijan, Artsvashen, is slightly smaller in area than the total territory of the three Azerbaijani enclaves, but it does not occupy any strategic territory; on the contrary, it is completely surrounded by Azerbaijani territory.

Following the war between the two sides in the 1990s, each side occupied the exclaves that were surrounded by their territory, and the respective populations had to flee.

Another guest of the program, Anna Karapetyan, director of the Hayatsk analytical center, believes that the West is working to oust Russia from the South Caucasus.

"The West is trying to make Armenia fix as soon as possible that it has no problems with Azerbaijan and Turkey. If there are no problems with Azerbaijan and Turkey, the need for Russia's direct presence in the region, presence of a Russian military base or peacekeepers in Artsakh is being reduced or nullified," Karapetyan said.

Demarcation and delimitation (of borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan) are not important for the West; the most important thing is a peace treaty between the two countries that will mean there is no conflict and therefore, no need for Russian presence, according to Karapetyan.

She also said it is illogical to negotiate the delimitation and demarcation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border when the enemy is still on your territory and you are at a disadvantage if the enemy tries to present withdrawal from your own sovereign territory as a concession. -0-