Armenians demonstrated today against the return of villages to Azerbaijan

At least 100 Armenians demonstrated today in a border region with Azerbaijan to denounce the assignment of villages to Azerbaijan, in the context of efforts to normalize relations between the two countries, Armenian media broadcast.

Basis of an agreement on border demarcation announced on Friday, the prime minister of Armenia Nicole Pashinian confirmed the return to Azerbaijan of four abandoned border villages, which Armenia had seized during a previous war between the two countries in the 1990s.

But residents of this area, located about 200 kilometers north of Yerevan, fear that this border-drawing process is isolating them and that some of their homes are under the control of Azerbaijan.

Today, they blocked the road connecting it for a short time Armenia with the Agriculture, who passes by them and represents for the local population the main link with the outside world. In addition, they attempted to block demining operations provided for under the border demarcation agreement.

The Investigative Committee of Armenia announced that it arrested seven members of a group of Armenian ex-combatants, the “Brotherhood of Fighters”, who were involved in the demonstration. One of the team leaders, Hrad Ter-Abrahamian, had told AFP in early April that residents had begun military training to be able to “take up arms if necessary.”

This border region is of strategic interest to Armenia, mainly due to the crossing of the road axis with Georgia and a Russian gas pipeline.