Armenian Foreign Minister: Replacing army with border guards on  Armenian-Azerbaijani border should be part of  final settlement

ArmInfo.The replacement of the army and armed forces with border guard representatives on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border should be part of the final settlement.  Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan stated on April 13 at a joint press conference with OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Minister of Foreign Affairs of North Macedonia, Bujar Osmani,.

According to him, this is important for several reasons, including the fact that, of course, the border guard service p carries out a border mission in all countries, but the tools are different, the weapons are different, etc.  "And I am sure that the transfer of control over the border to the border guard service will significantly reduce the likelihood of new conflicts in the future, including new invasions into the territory of Armenia.  This idea is being discussed, this idea is not new, because earlier we publicly proposed the possibility of withdrawing the armed forces to a certain distance from each other, and now it is being discussed. And I can also reveal a little secret - this is also part of the discussion of the draft peace treaty, at least in the form of our proposals. I repeat, we consider it important to introduce this mechanism," Mirzoyan said.

At the same time, he added that now there is already such a mechanism in some sections of the Armenian- Azerbaijani border, where the control is carried out by the border guard service. According to the minister, experience shows that the likelihood of collisions in those areas, that is, history, at least, shows that the effectiveness of that mechanism exists and really works.

"Unfortunately, we are dealing with many unresolved issues. I mentioned, for example, that we were negotiating, this issue is part of the negotiations, but in parallel with the negotiations, we see that Azerbaijan is trying on the ground, will continue its overt policy of using force. And when, as they say, force is not used on the ground, we constantly hear threats to use this force at the highest level and intimidation of the civilian population. And these maximalist, aggressive approaches are also manifested in other related, interrelated issues, including the replacement of the armed forces by border guards, including during negotiations, etc. That is, in parallel with them, of course, this does not prevent us from continuing work in this direction," he said.

Earlier, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan spoke about replacing the army with border guards on the border with Azerbaijan.