Residents of border villages protest as Armenia, Azerbaijan agree on delimitation

Residents of several Armenian communities in Tavush province began protests late on April 20 after the authorities of Armenia and Azerbaijan announced a border delimitation deal under which Baku will regain control of four Azerbaijani villages in the area.

People, in particular, blocked traffic at sections of the road linking their villages to the towns of Ijevan and Noyemberian, respectively, MP Kristine Vardanyan from the Hayastan faction said, Caliber.az reports citing Armenian media.

“Now I am in the Tavush region. Citizens are preparing to spend the night right here on the road. There is information about the accumulation of police forces, that they will try to open the road, but citizens, despite this, remain in place, make fires," Vardanyan said.

The MP added that the citizens were promised to clarify the situation tomorrow.

Vardanyan noted that MPs from the Hayastan faction Mher Sahakyan, Garnik Danielyan, Arman Ghazaryan, Ashot Simonyan and Ishkhan Saghatelyan are with her.

As it has been reported, in the morning of April 20, the protesting residents of Kirants, Baganis, Berkaber and Voskepar villages unblocked the Yerevan-Noyemberyan highway, which had been blocked the day before in protest against the authorities' decision to return the villages to Azerbaijan. This happened because they were going to meet with Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan in Yerevan on April 22 to develop proposals on border demarcation and delimitation.

However, on April 21, the residents of Tavush region again blocked the Yerevan-Noyemberyan highway, as the agreement reached regarding the meeting with Mher Grigoryan was violated. Without waiting for the results of the negotiations, representatives of the Defence Ministry started demining work in the areas adjacent to the village of Kirants, but this was prevented by local residents.