Pashinyan: Border delimitations in Syunik ‘aim to create future security guarantees’

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan took to Facebook on Saturday morning to uphold his long repeated thesis ruling out any territorial concessions to Azerbaijan.

“No inch of land was ceded from either Syunik or the entire territory of Armenia. Make no doubt that!” he said in a live address to the nation.  

Commenting on the border delimitation activities in the southern region, Pashinyuan noted that those procedures involve the national armed forces and border guards, who are being deployed “along the internationally recognized borders of Armenia”.

“That definitely contributes to certain changes, creating complications and inconvenience in an environment familiar to us and, what’s even more, provoking certain emotions – and assessments - that what happened there amounts to the handover of Syunik or threatens the loss of Syunik.

“The reality, however, is just the other way about. Every possible effort is being taken now to guarantee the security of Syunik and to strengthen the existing guarantees. The problem dealt with real threats of renewed military actions beyond the internationally recognized borders of Armenia. Had such an escalation taken place, it might have easily extended to the Syunik region, the territory of Armenia, with all the consequent scenarios. By deploying [our troops] along our internationally recognized borders today, we are virtually creating a new security guarantee for Syunik, because the border we now have is a constituent part of the security system of which we are member – and which, by definition, has completely different rules of functioning,” the prime minister stated.

He added that both Russian border guards and other defense forces are "fully engaged" in the security-building operations  “to contribute to a real situational change”.  “Transport-related and logistic difficulties may certainly arise in connection with that, as there may be complications with the unhampered operation of our roadways. But those problems are possible to solve - also by way of having a tripartite document,” Pashinyan said, announcing also his plan to travel to the southern region to get familiarized with the situation on the ground.