Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanyan commented on the question of how to delineate Armenia’s national borders and territory with an “encyclopedia.”

Earlier, the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had made a reference to the Great Soviet Encyclopedia in this regard.

Speaking with reporters Thursday, Kostanyan explained the processes taking place in accordance with the established tradition with the Almaty declaration of 1991. According to his version, pursuant to the aforesaid declaration, the former Soviet republics were recognized as independent countries; and also in accordance with the same declaration, the administrative borders between them became national borders. To note, however, this declaration talks about the borders "existing at the time of signing" of this declaration, not the Soviet borders.

To the question of how it is possible to draw the borders in accordance with an encyclopedia, Kostanyan, stated the necessity of border delimitation again in accordance with the Almaty declaration and the UN Charter. The latter, by the way, contains even more unclear wording.

According to the Armenian deputy FM, the fact that a trilateral commission was set up to deal with border delimitation is evidence of the importance attached to this matter.

Asked whether Azerbaijan links the signing of a peace treaty with Armenia to the demand for eight "enclave" villages, Kostanyan responded that the determining of the borders is fundamental for Armenia, and it considers the issue a cornerstone.

"Among the important issues is also the recording of the four principles of unblocking; they are reflected in the Granada statement. Last year as well there was talk about the need to create dispute settlement mechanisms. The parties have yet to bring their positions closer on these issues. As for the process in general, Armenia remains interested in concluding a peace treaty with Azerbaijan," said the Armenian official.

And to the repeated question as to whether there is a demand from Azerbaijan, Kostanyan answered that the matters related to border delimitation should be considered by the relevant commissions.

Recently, the Azerbaijani foreign ministry demanded eight "enclave" villages from Armenia—and in the form of an ultimatum, but Baku is silent about the Armenian enclaves Azerbaijan.