Proposal on troop withdrawal with Azerbaijan still stands: Yerevan
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The Armenian Foreign Ministry says the Armenian side has always proposed a mirror withdrawal of troops from the interstate border.
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Azerbaijani army members hold the national Azerbaijani flag near the village of Talysh, Azerbaijan, October 22, 2020. (Photo by Alexey Kudenko/Sputnik)
Yerevan's proposal that Armenia and Azerbaijan should pull back troops from the two countries' border still stands, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday, adding that it is ready to discuss the issue as soon as possible.
"During the negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Armenian side has always proposed a mirror withdrawal of troops from the interstate border, and it is still valid," the ministry told Sputnik.
The withdrawal of troops must be conducted based on the most recent maps of the Soviet Union, the ministry added.
It declined to disclose what points of the future peace agreement remain unresolved between the two South Caucasus nations, but described the recognition of the territorial integrity of both countries, the early start of the border demarcation process, and the unblocking of regional communications as Yerevan's "top priorities".
On December 14, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov called Armenia's proposal that Baku withdraw troops from the Azerbaijani-Armenian border "unacceptable" as it was not delimited yet.
In September, Azerbaijan took control over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, populated mainly by ethnic Armenians, in a lightning offensive.
The Nagorno-Karabakh authorities declared that the unrecognized state would cease to exist from January 1, 2024. Both Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said a peace treaty between the two countries could be signed by the end of the year.
