RESPONSES OF THE MINISTRY OF JUSTICE OF ARMENIA TO THE THESES PRESENTED BY CONSTITUTIONAL EXPERT VARDAN POGHOSYAN REGARDING THE ONGOING WORKS OF DELIMITATION BETWEEN ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN

The claims of the constitutional expert regarding the process of delimitation are misleading. The Ministry of Justice presents counterarguments. On 17 May 2024, "Freedom Radio" published a video titled “Constitutional expert states, de jure territories of the Republic of Armenia are transferred to Azerbaijan” (available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgVApyizqJE), in which the constitutional expert Vardan Poghosyan voiced a number of misleading theses. Moreover, the ideas expressed have spread onto some other platforms as well, due to which we consider it necessary to address the arguments presented below.

Thesis 1 – The regulations of the "Administrative Territorial Division" law are presented as an argument for the belonging of Kheyrumli village of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Republic of Armenia, which reflects the description of the administrative border of Kirants Municipality, according to which Kirants Rural Settlement borders the Berkaber Rural Settlement.

Response – At this point, it is necessary to state that the provisions of the law shown and referred to in the video were invalidated on 09.06.2017, that is, at the time of implementation of border delimitation works, the specified description of the administrative border of Kirants Municipality was no longer valid in this law. Meanwhile, there is no mention of it in the video, thus creating a false impression among the public that existing legal regulations are shown and referred to. However, even the claim that the Kirants municipality borders Berkaber from the east along the "B"-"C" section does not mean that it included the territory of the Azerbaijani village of Kheyrumli, because the inclusion of Kheyrumli village is not a mandatory condition for Kirants settlement to be considered bordering Berkaber.

In addition, it is an indisputable fact that the village of Kheyrumli belonging to the Azerbaijan SSR existed, and according to the legally based maps that existed at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, including the 1976 topographical map of the USSR General Staff, that village had a clear territory, and the map reflected its belonging to Soviet Azerbaijan. Therefore, the territory of Kheyrumli cannot under any circumstances be considered as the territory of Kirants settlement.

Thesis 2 – Referring to the protocol approved on January 12, 1988 by the vice presidents of the Councils of Ministers of the Armenian SSR and the Azerbaijan SSR, it is noted that during the years of the Soviet Union, the Governments of the two countries had the authority to determine the border.

Response – First of all, it is necessary to emphasize that reference is not made and cannot be made to any legal norm that would endow the governments of the Soviet republics with such authority. The fact that the authority to determine the border between the union republics is not reserved to the governments of Soviet Armenia and Soviet Azerbaijan is also evidenced by the very protocol under discussion. Not being endowed with the appropriate authority, the vice presidents of the Councils of Ministers did not finish the work, but agreed to present the map to be drawn up as a result of the delimitation to the Presidia of the Supreme Councils of the two countries and the territorial units of the State Geological Inspectorate to be monitored, which was not done.

Thesis 3 – The 1976 map of the USSR General Staff has no legal basis, because there was no agreement between the Armenian SSR and the Azerbaijan SSR in those years.

Response – Vardan Poghosyan does not refer to the fact that on the 1976 map, the signatures of the heads of the territorial units of the State Geological Inspectorate of the USSR (including the Transcaucasia) confirm that the borderline on them corresponds to the borderline decided by the 1969 Presidia of the Supreme Councils of the two republics.