13:16,
YEREVAN, MAY 15, ARMENPRESS. Deputy Foreign Minister Paruyr Hovhannisyan said on May 15 that it is unclear for him what the EU Ambassador meant by saying that “there are one or two spots where Armenian forces are in border region”.
During the May 15 press conference on Europe Day and the EU-Armenia relations, when asked on the Pashinyan-Aliyev-Michel talks in Brussels, the Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia Ambassador Andrea Wiktorin said: “…naturally it is our hope that both sides withdraw their troops and that everybody is then really going into the work of delimitation and demarcation.”
When asked to clarify what she means by saying “both sides withdraw their troops”, the EU Ambassador said: “It is stated that there are one or two spots where also Armenian forces are, let’s say, in the border region. And you need to have clear delimitation and demarcation. This was the general wording used in Brussels.”
Asked to elaborate, the Deputy FM also addressed the issue.
“It is unclear for me also what the remarks are about. But perhaps it’s about the first war in Nagorno Karabakh. Perhaps it should be viewed from that perspective. But I also find it difficult to say what it was about,” he said.
Hovhannisyan said that perhaps it is an accepted format to always address both sides. “But it is obvious here for everyone that in this period it is about the withdrawal of troops from the territory of Armenia, this has been addressed by the EU, the US and other partners,” Hovhannisyan said, referring to multiple calls made by the international community to Azerbaijan to pull back its troops from sovereign territory of Armenia.
During the press conference the EU ambassador had also mentioned that the issue of the rights and security of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh was also discussed at the EU summit.
She said that this implies additional steps as well.
Wiktorin noted that there is an understanding that some kind of an international mechanism is needed for this, and work must be done to develop it and agree it will all parties.
After the April 11 deadly Azeri attack on Armenian troops near the village of Tegh, the EU called for the 1991 line to be respected the forces of either side withdrawn to safe distances.