Dozens of Armenian demonstrators blocked roads in the Caucasus nation, particularly in the capital Yerevan, today to protest what they described as territorial concessions made to Azerbaijan, media reported, AFP reported.
This week, the two neighboring and rival countries began demarcating their common border after decades of territorial disputes.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has agreed to return to Azerbaijan four border villages seized by Yerevan’s forces in the first war in the 1990s, which forced their Azerbaijani residents to flee.
But some Armenians in the surrounding villages say the decision will cut them off from the rest of the country and accuse their leader Pashinyan of sacrificing territory with no guarantee of getting anything in return.
To express their anger, residents also gathered today after already organizing demonstrations in recent days.
Demonstrators blocked major roads, in particular the road connecting Armenia and Georgia, which runs nearby and is the main link to the outside world for the local population.
Armenia’s main north-south thoroughfare was blocked near the village of Tigranachen, recognized as belonging to Azerbaijan but effectively under Armenian control, according to local media.
This border region is of strategic interest to Armenia, mostly because of the crossing of the road axis with Georgia and a Russian gas pipeline.
In Yerevan, police officers made arrests as they tried to clear roads blocked by demonstrators, according to videos.
Pashinyan insisted on the need to resolve the border disputes “to avoid another war”.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev assured on Tuesday that a peace agreement with Armenia, which several rounds of negotiations failed to reach, was now “closer than ever”.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have faced each other in two wars – the first in the 1990s, won by Armenia and claiming more than 30,000 lives, and the second in 2020, won by Azerbaijan and claiming more than 6,000 lives , recalls AFP.
In September 2023, Baku launched a lightning offensive that forced Armenian separatists from Nagorno-Karabakh to capitulate within days and took control of the entire territory, AFP notes.
