Do you know why those areas were taken?
After the war ended, Armenians withdrew from the Karabakh border areas but not many people know that even excluding exclaves, there are areas for example in the north that Armenian troops took in the 90s. When the 2020 war ended, they agreed to leave Karabakh, but they did not agree to leave those other areas on the border, when talks of demarcation started they said, lets make the border based on "Lines of Control" instead of the Soviet Border based on Alma Ata, which obviously favored them as they held more land outside of Alma Ata.
So Azerbaijan responded by taking areas in other parts, and said ok, you still want to do borders based on "Lines of Control"? After this, the Armenians changed their minds and no longer wanted to do borders based on Lines of Control and said they want it to be based on Alma Ata, Azerbaijan said ok, but we start demarcation at the areas that you took, this went on for a while until in 2024, Armenia returned 4 villages that were part of the Qazax District of Azerbaijan, what previously Armenia controlled as part of its Tavush province. This if you remember led to some protests in Armenia from the Irredentists. But that return of the 4 villages.
Bağanis Ayrum,
Aşağı Əskipara,
Xeyrimli, and
Qızılhacılı formed the basis for demarcation.
So after that return there have been several developments including the ratification by both countries of the demarcation. This happened in around late October/early November 2024.
YEREVAN—The National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia has ratified a bill concerning the delimitation and demarcation of the border with Azerbaijan. The legislation passed on October 23, 2024, with 67 votes in favor and no dissenting votes. Notably, this vote was conducted solely by members...
armenianweekly.com
The United States has praised Armenia and Azerbaijan for their recent ratification of an agreement to regulate the process of border delimitation and demarcation between the two South Caucasus nations.
www.azatutyun.am
After this, there was a meeting that took place in January 2025
interfax.com
tert.am
That meeting was 2 weeks back, we should hopefully see more results soon on where the next point of demarcation will be.
I'd say 80-90% of the issues are solved, but that last 10-20% is the hardest. B/c it requires the issue of exclaves to be solved, whether they should exchange them or whatever mechanism is assigned to them. Personally I think an exchange works best, as there is less drama but its harder to do legally, b/c any exchange of territory requires a constitutional approval/change. which itself is complicated for Armenia domestically for various reasons.
news.am
