Refutation: Claims of constitutional expert regarding demarcation process are misleading — Ministry of Justice presents counterarguments
20/05/2024

On 17 May 2024, Radio Liberty posted a video titled “De jure territories of the Republic of Armenia are being transferred to Azerbaijan - constitutional expert” (available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgVApyizqJE), in which constitutional expert Vardan Poghosyan voiced a number of misleading statements. Moreover, the ideas expressed are, to a certain extent, common on other platforms as well, and due to this, we deem it necessary to touch upon the following arguments presented in the video:
Argument 1: The regulations of the Law of the Republic of Armenia "On administrative-territorial division" are presented as an argument on Kheyrumli village of Azerbaijan belonging to the Republic of Armenia, in which there is a description of the administrative boundary of Kirants community, according to which Kirants rural community borders with Berkaber rural community.
Response. In this regard, it should be stated that the regulations of the Law shown and referenced in the video were repealed on 9 June 2017, meaning that, the mentioned description of the administrative boundary of Kirants community was no longer valid under this Law at the moment when the activities for demarcation were being carried out; however, this is not mentioned in the video, and it creates a misleading impression that the existing legislative regulations are being shown and referenced. Nevertheless, the assertion that Kirants community borders Berkaber from the east in the "B"-"C" section in no way implies that it included the Azerbaijani village of Kheyrumli, as the inclusion of Kheyrumli is not a mandatory condition for Kirants settlement to be considered as a settlement bordering Berkaber.
Besides, it is an indisputable fact that Kheyrumli village — pertaining to the Azerbaijan SSR — existed, and according to the legally substantiated maps that existed at the time of collapse of the Soviet Union, including the 1976 topographical map of the General Staff of the USSR, this village had a specific territory, and its pertinence to Soviet Azerbaijan is shown in the map. Therefore, under no circumstances can the territory of Kheyrumli be considered part of the Kirants community.
Argument 2: Touching upon the protocol approved on 12 January 1988 by the Vice- Presidents of the Councils of Ministers of the Armenian SSR and the Azerbaijan SSR, it is mentioned that during the years of the Soviet Union, the Governments of the two countries had the jurisdiction to determine the border.
Response: First, it is necessary to emphasise that there is and cannot be any reference to any legal norm that would vest the governments of the Soviet Republics with such jurisdiction. The very protocol in question also attests to the fact that the jurisdiction to determine the border between the Republics of the Soviet Union is not reserved for the governments of the Armenian SSR and the Azerbaijani SSR; by not being vested with the relevant jurisdiction, the Vice-Presidents of the Councils of Ministers did not complete the activities, but agreed to submit the map to be drawn up as a result of delimitation to the presidiums of the Supreme Councils of the two countries and to the territorial units of the State Geological Inspectorate to perform on-duty work, but this was not done.
Argument 3: The 1976 map of the General Staff of the USSR has no legal ground because there was no treaty between the Armenian SSR and the Azerbaijan SSR in those years.
Response. V. Poghosyan does not invoke the fact that the signatures of the heads of the territorial inspectorates of the State Geological Survey of the USSR (including Transcaucasia) on the 1976 map confirm that the borderline indicated there corresponds to the borderline established in 1969 upon the decisions of the Presidiums of the Supreme Councils (SC) of the Armenian SSR and the Azerbaijan SSR. This means that the borderline on the maps of 1969 and of 1976 is identical, and the borderline of the 1969 map also lies at the core of the 1988 Protocol which is often invoked and the delimitation works preceding the Protocol. As for the legal force of the 1988 Protocols, it should be mentioned that further steps of the process provided for by the Protocol signed on 12 January 1988, have not been implemented. The corresponding map was not drawn up, the documents were not submitted to the Presidiums of the Supreme Councils for approval and to the territorial units of the State Geological Survey for on-duty work. As a result, the process envisaged by the Protocol was incomplete and did not have legal force.
Argument 4: The Cadastre Committee issued certificates of registration of rights to the residents of Kirants settlement; therefore, these territories are the territories of the Republic of Armenia.
Response: It should be mentioned that state registration of the respective rights was carried out on the basis of inaccurate information. These registrations may not serve as a legal basis to claim that the territories in question are considered as part of the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia by virtue of the fact of state registrations made based on inaccuracies.
Argument 5: The state border can be demarcated only after reaching an agreement on the entire border based on an international treaty.
Response. We deem it necessary to state that the ongoing process is a process of regeneration of the state border, not the lineation of a new border. Currently, guided by the documents approved under the decisions of the Presidiums of the Supreme Councils of the Armenian SSR and Azerbaijan SSR of 1969 and the maps drawn up on the basis of the decisions, the mutually agreed border between the countries during the USSR period is being regenerated based of the principles mutually agreed under the Declaration of Alma-Ata. It should also be mentioned that in the message disseminated after the meeting of the commissions of the two countries on 19 April 2024, it is indicated that demarcation in the section of the 4 villages is preliminary until finalisation of the demarcation process, and the document certifying finalisation of the demarcation process will be the International Treaty on the State Border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which will be subject to ratification by the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia.
Therefore, the process being carried out is fully legitimate. As part of the ongoing process, in the nearest future, the two Commissions will also agree on the draft Regulatiօn on Joint Activity of the Commissions and submit this to the respective parliaments for approval.