By Nailia Bagirova
BAKU (Reuters) – Armenia agreed to return several villages to Azerbaijan, in what both sides called on Friday an important step as they move towards a peace deal after fighting two wars since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Aykhan Hajizada announced on of a “highly anticipated historic event”.
In Armenia, the official news agency quoted the Prime Minister’s Office as saying: “In this process, the Republic of Armenia benefits from a reduction in risks related to border demarcation and security. »
He indicated that the handover in practice only concerned “two and a half villages”, because Azerbaijan already partly controlled the settlements concerned, but added that the demarcation of the border was an “important event”.
The settlements are deserted but are of strategic importance because they are close to Armenia’s main road north to the border with Georgia, through which much of its trade is carried out, and the gas pipeline through which the country receives gas from Russia.
The agreement was reached during a meeting on the border of the two countries, chaired by their deputy prime ministers.
Azerbaijan demands the return of villages as a precondition for a peace deal after more than three decades of conflict, mainly centered on the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The dynamic shifted dramatically in Azerbaijan’s favor last September when its forces launched a lightning offensive to regain control of Karabakh, where ethnic Armenians had enjoyed de facto independence since the mid-1990s. -the entire population, or 100,000 people, fled to Armenia in a few days.
Russia deployed peacekeeping troops to Nagorno-Karabakh after the last major war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2020, but said this week it had started withdrawing them. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is scheduled to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.
Russia, distracted by its war in Ukraine, risks losing influence in the Caucasus region, which it considers its historical sphere of influence. The United States and the European Union have also put pressure on both sides to reach a peace agreement.
(Writing by Mark Trevelyan, editing by Felix Light and Timothy Heritage)
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