If 1991 border is mutually recognized, what are the Azerbaijani troops doing near Jermuk? Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told Armenian Public TV on Friday.

"In Sochi I voiced the proposal of the Nagorno Karabakh authorities to establish a demilitarized zone around Nagorno Karabakh with international guarantees, which I think will be discussed in the future.

"I don't want to say anything about their response now, lest it turn out later that I am misinterpreting this response. I can say that I have put the proposal on the table, let everything else be considered and expressed in further discussions," Pashinyan said.

Referring to the Armenian side's proposal, according to which the troops should withdraw from the border, approved in 1991, with the creation of a three-kilometer demilitarized zone on both sides of the border, the PM said: "It is very important to fix one important detail. If Baku says that Armenia and Azerbaijan have mutually recognized the 1991 border, we thereby record that the Artsakh issue is closed.

Before this we need to ask a question: If the border of 1991 is mutually recognized, what are your troops doing, for example, near Upper Shorzha, Jermuk, near the southern shore of the Black Lake, etc.? Your troops should have withdrawn long ago, or at least immediately after the Prague meeting.

We made the same proposal as in 2021, but this time in more detail: if we accept the 1991 border line, we must withdraw our troops from the line on a reciprocal basis. That is, there should be no Armenian troops on the other side of that line and no Azerbaijani troops on the other side. We propose to create a three-kilometer demilitarized zone. That means that army units should be withdrawn from that zone, and the security of that part should be given to the border troops of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Of course, there are proposals of a certain technical nature here as to how to create the mentioned demilitarized zone so as not to disturb the normal life of people, not to create a security threat from that side?"