YEREVAN. Oct 27 (Interfax) - Russia should be involved in the process of solving the problem of the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said.
"The maps the Russian president has talked about are, if not 100%, then 99% the same as those defined by the law on Armenia's administrative-territorial division. It is this law that shows the territory of Armenia, while the borders, as a de jure category, are certainly marked by another law," Pashinyan said when answering questions from deputies during a meeting in parliament on Wednesday.
"I believe that, yes, these maps are necessary, these discussions are necessary. It is important that Russia, including as a co-chair country of the OSCE [Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe] Minsk Group, should be involved in this process," he said.
Pashinyan also said that the process of Armenian-Azerbaijani border demarcation and delimitation should be carried out on the basis of Soviet maps, which have a legal basis.
On October 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia could play a key role in resolving the problem of the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
"The main thing today is to definitively settle the situation on the border [between Armenia and Azerbaijan]. And it is impossible to do anything here without Russia's participation," Putin said at a session of the Valdai Discussion Club.
"We probably don't need anyone else here, except the two sides and Russia. These are things that are simple and pragmatic: yes, these are maps, because there are some [maps] in the Russian army's General Staff that show what the boundaries of the Soviet socialist republics looked like during the Soviet period," he said.
"It's based on these documents that we should calmly sit down on both sides. There are things there that also require mutual compromises, like straightening something somewhere and swapping something somewhere else," Putin said.