YEREVAN/BAKU. June 5 (Interfax) - Baku and Yerevan have not agreed to delimit their border based on a specific map, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The ministry rejected as unacceptable the remarks made by Armenian Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan on the OTA channel on June 4, "in an attempt to once again distort the meaning of certain issues, thus misleading the international public and Armenian society, as Armenia seeks to avoid fulfilling its obligations."
It was agreed at the summits in Prague [on October 6, 2022] and Sochi [October 31, 2022] that the border would be delimited "based on mutual recognition of territorial integrity and sovereignty," the ministry said.
"The Armenian side is well aware that no agreement was reached at either of those meetings to carry out delimitation based on a particular map," it said.
Consistent with international practice, "the delimitation process carried out by Azerbaijan with some of its neighbors to date was not based on a specific, chosen map, unlike in the case of Armenia, but relied on an analysis and consideration of every legally significant document," the ministry said. "The same practice could apply to Armenia. In this particular case, it would be more productive for Armenia to begin the delimitation process rather than insist on the 1975 map," it said.
In turn, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said that "there is an obligation to carry out this work [delimit the border] in accordance with the Almaty Declaration." "The agreement was reached in Prague on October 6. However, there is no final agreement regarding the maps," Mirzoyan said in parliament on Monday.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev raised no objections to the 1975 maps at a meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Chisinau, Mirzoyan said. "We believe that recognizing each other's territorial integrity based on these maps and beginning the delimitation process on this basis would be a decision that's acceptable to Armenia," Mirzoyan said.
He also noted that the delimitation commission would address the problem of enclaves within Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on May 22 that Armenia and Azerbaijan should delimit their border based on the maps drawn up by the Soviet Armed Forces' General Staff.
"We believe that the Soviet General Staff's 1975 maps can and should serve as a basis for work on delimitation. This is also implied by the agreement reached in Prague on October 6, 2022, according to which Armenia and Azerbaijan recognized each other's territorial integrity and agreed to carry out delimitation consistent with the Almaty Declaration of 1991," Pashinyan said at a press conference at the time.
Pashinyan said on June 1 that the five-sided meeting with the presidents of Azerbaijan, France and the European Council and the German federal chancellor in Chisinau was useful.
"There is one detail, a very important one. Today, yet another step appears to have been made, with the sides confirming not being against using the 1975 maps as a basis for subsequent work on the delimitation [of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border]," Pashinyan told members of the Armenian community in Moldova on Thursday.