Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on March 18 that Armenia may face a war with Azerbaijan if it does not compromise with Baku on returning some strategic Azerbaijani territories that Armenia has controlled since the early 1990s.
Pashinyan was speaking during a Monday meeting with residents of border areas in northern Armenia's Tavush region, close to a string of deserted Azerbaijani villages that Yerevan has controlled since the opening phases of the countries' three-decade-long conflict in early 1990.
Pashinyan said in a video of the meeting circulated by his government: "Now we can leave here, let’s go and tell [Azerbaijan] that no, we are not going to do anything. This means that at the end of the week, a war will begin."
He was speaking during the trip to the villages of Voskepar and Kirants in the Tavush region of Armenia where he met officials and local residents.
Armenian leader has repeatedly signalled in recent weeks that he is willing to return the villages to Azerbaijan, which are important for Yerevan, as they control its main road northwards to the border with Georgia.
Azerbaijan has said that the return of its lands is a necessary precondition for a peace deal to end three decades of conflict over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which Azerbaijan retook in September.
The two sides have said they want to sign a formal peace treaty, but talks have become bogged down in issues including the demarcation of the countries' 1000km border, which is closed and heavily militarized.
Both Armenia and Azerbaijan continue to occupy lands that are internationally recognized as part of the other's territory.
#azerbaijan #armenia #baku #defence #warnews
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