YEREVAN. April 13 (Interfax) - Armenia is ready to withdraw its forces from the border with Azerbaijan in compliance with the 1991 declaration, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said.
"Contrary to our efforts, unfortunately, we were unable to deploy border guards at the section in the village of Tegh on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan without incidents. On April 11, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces committed another act of provocation at this section, resulting in the deaths of four Armenian military service members. At this section, Azerbaijan's actions are provocative and go against the statements made in Prague on October 6, 2022 and in Sochi on October 31, 2022," Pashinyan said at a government meeting on Thursday.
Pashinyan mentioned as important the European Union's statement saying that the incident in the Tegh village area "yet again emphasizes that in the absence of a delimited border, the 1991 line must be respected [and] the forces of both sides withdrawn to safe distances from this line to prevent any similar incidents from occurring."
"Armenia is prepared for such actions along the entire border line between Armenia and Azerbaijan valid as of 1991 and in keeping with the Almaty Declaration. We have declared this since 2021," Pashinyan said.
"Azerbaijan's destructive approach obstructs" this process, he said.
"Azerbaijan systematically manifests its position of failing to honor agreements reached on international platforms, particularly as concerns the release of prisoners or compliance with the ceasefire and non-use of force terms, on which a written agreement was reached in Sochi in October 2022," he said.
Despite all difficulties, Armenia remains committed to and involved in a policy of settling all regional issues, the Nagorno-Karabakh problem, and relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan through negotiations, he said.
"We are prepared to open economic and transport communication routes in the region based on the principles we declared earlier, and we are prepared for border delimitation on the basis of the agreements reached in Prague and Sochi," Pashinyan said.
The parties to a four-sided meeting between Pashinyan, Aliyev, French President Emmanuel Macron, and President of the European Council Charles Michel in October 2022 adopted a statement in which Armenia and Azerbaijan reaffirmed their commitment to the UN Charter and the 1991 Almaty Declaration, thereby recognizing each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty. "They reaffirmed that this would serve as a basis for the work of delimitation commissions," the statement said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Aliyev, and Pashinyan also adopted a joint statement in Sochi in October 2022, which says that Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to refrain from using force and threats to use force and discuss and settle all problems exclusively based on the mutual recognition of their sovereignty, territorial integrity, and inviolability of their borders in line with the UN Charter and the 1991 Almaty Declaration.