Mirzoyan rules out talks on surrender of villages in Tavush region

YEREVAN, March 15. /ARKA/. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan declined today allegations that the authorities were negotiating the surrender of villages in Tavush region to Azerbaijan.

"No Armenian official has the right to negotiate the surrender of villages, territories, plots not only in Tavush region, but also in other regions of our country. No one can surrender the villages of Tavush to any other country. This is an axiomatic truth, and there are legal mechanisms to guarantee it. Consequently, we are not negotiating the surrender of villages in Tavush," Mirzoyan said.

Earlier, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said there was and can be no talk of surrendering villages in Tavush region to Azerbaijan.

The office of Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan, who chairs the Armenian border delimitation commission, said that Azerbaijan refuses to recognize the occupation of parts of 31 settlements in Armenia proper and at the same time demands the return of four villages in Tavush province. The villages claimed by Azerbaijan are mostly uninhabited, however, a section of the road that runs to Georgia passes near one of them, the village of Nerkin Voskepar.

Mirzoyan, said also there are existential problems for the country.

"There are gigantic, I would say existential problems for Armenia. There are international actors who are interested in Armenia ceasing to exist. There are actors who have claims on Armenia's sovereign territories. In such conditions, everything cannot be in rosy colors," he said, commenting on the claims that the authorities paint all foreign policy processes in a positive way. -0-