Azerbaijan demands return of 4 villages under occupation of Armenia

Azerbaijan demanded the immediate return of four villages under the occupation of Armenia, according to Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev on Saturday.

Mustafayev's office said the state commissions of Azerbaijan and Armenia met on Thursday for the seventh time on the delimitation of their mutual borders, as the neighboring countries continue talks on a peace treaty.

The statements slammed as "false" the reports claiming that Azerbaijan had occupied 31 Armenian villages, noting that "it is completely unfounded to say that the lands belonging to 31 villages of Armenia have been 'occupied' until the borders are determined."

"Four villages that are under the occupation of Armenia and are not exclaves (Baganis Ayr, Aşagi Eskipara, Heyrimli, and Kizilhacili) unquestionably belong to Azerbaijan and should be returned immediately.

"The issue of the return of four exclave villages (Upper Eskipara, Sofulu, Berhudarli, and Kerki), which are under the occupation of Armenia, will be resolved within the framework of the border determination process," it said.

Relations between Baku and Yerevan have remained tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

Most of the territory was liberated by Azerbaijan during a war in the fall of 2020, which ended after a Russian-brokered peace agreement that also opened the door to normalization.

Azerbaijan established full sovereignty in Karabakh after an "anti-terrorism operation" in September 2023, after which separatist forces in the region surrendered.