“We hope that both sides [Armenia and Azerbaijan] will withdraw their troops [from the border] and start delimitation and demarcation. There are a couple of points where Armenian troops are in the border areas. And there should be a very clear demarcation and demarcation. This is exactly the wording used in Brussels,” head of the EU Delegation to Armenia Andrea Wiktorin said yesterday.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry did not react to the ambassador’s statement about the withdrawal of Armenian troops from its own border. Deputy Foreign Minister Paruyr Hovhannisyan told journalists that the ambassador’s statement was incomprehensible.

Meanwhile, the proposal for a mirror withdrawal of troops was made by the Prime Minister of Armenia in May 2021, when the Azerbaijani Armed Forces for the first time advanced deep into the sovereign territory of the country. Nikol Pashinyan also suggested placing international observers in the demilitarized zone.

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Tigran Abrahamyan, MP from the opposition faction “I have the honor”, reacted harshly to the statement of the EU Ambassador to Armenia. :

“Andrea Wiktorin makes statements without knowing the information, or deliberately tries to mislead. In this situation, when it is obvious that Azerbaijan resorted to aggression, starting from the 44-day war, occupied the territories of Armenia and Artsakh, and thousands of people died as a result of this aggression, the views of the international community should have followed a different logic,” he said.

Andranik Kocharyan, deputy from the ruling Civil Contract faction and chairman of the parliamentary commission on defense and security issues, commented:

“I know that the Armenian troops are where they should be at the moment. I know that it was the Azerbaijani troops that invaded the territory of Armenia in several directions. And once again I repeat: what is ours is ours. Sooner or later, everything must end up recognizing our borders. They are inviolable,” he said.

According to political scientist Gurgen Simonyan, Wiktorin’s statement was illogical. He says that there are no Armenian armed forces on the territory of Azerbaijan. It is possible that the EU ambassador is referring to Nagorno-Karabakh.

“The fact that the army of Nagorno-Karabakh is in certain positions means that the local population cares about their physical security. If they don’t stand where they stand, there will be genocide,” he told JAMnews.

According to Simonyan, “diplomats holding such high positions have no right to make such irresponsible statements.”

“Perhaps the last unsuccessful flirtation between Armenia and Moscow, when the prime minister went to participate in the military parade on May 9, became the reason. Maybe she just put it that way out of ignorance. Perhaps it was inertia, when for years the Europeans turned to the parties with similar appeals. Although in the name of justice they had to make targeted statements. And if Wiktorin is trying to put the issue of some enclaves on the agenda, then this is a policy of fishing in troubled waters.“

Political observer Naira Hayrumyan says that Brussels and Washington have been lobbying for the idea of withdrawing troops for a long time – after Pashinyan’s proposal:

“What is meant by “withdrawal of troops”, everyone, apparently, understands in his own way. But the biggest snag is the presence of Russian troops – both in Karabakh, in the Lachin corridor, and on the borders of Armenia, including with Azerbaijan.

Does the withdrawal of troops also mean the withdrawal of the Russian contingent from Artsakh and the revision of the agreement between Armenia and Russia on the protection of the borders of Armenia?

If Armenia and Azerbaijan withdraw their troops, then the buffer zone will have to be guarded by international forces. Is the statement by Brussels and Washington about the need to withdraw troops a “polite offer” by Russia to leave the region and leave it to international forces? Latently, such an idea, apparently, is being promoted, but the lack of specifics only exacerbates the situation, driving Armenia into a deeper hole – when there is an agreement to retreat, but there is no understanding for how long.