The issue of enclaves came to the agenda when PM Nikol Pashinyan announced that he recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan in the area of 86,600 square kilometers, and the villages that Azerbaijan demands are included in that area. Armenian opposition MP Kristine Vardanyan noted this in an interview with Armenian News-NEWS.am.

"We have to ask ourselves how we got to the point where we are discussing the issue of handing over villages from Tavush or other provinces [of Armenia] to Azerbaijan when just two years ago the representatives of the [Armenian] ruling power almost cursed the person who said there was such an agenda. We have to think about what will happen after this because this also is not the end.

We had visited Tavush, and I can record the change in public sentiments within two years. If in 2021, people simply did not believe that there could be an agenda for the handover of villages from Tavush and responded very sharply to public figures, politicians, and journalists that it was spreading a hostile agenda, now Tavush does not discuss whether the topic of handing over villages is correct or not; now it is discussed how we should protect those villages.

That is, people have been left without a state. The state is not only absent, but the representatives of the state go, agree on handing over. The topic of discussion for the population of Tavush is how they will protect themselves; they are thinking about trenching," said Vardanyan.

The opposition lawmaker noted that the Armenian public has no idea what it means to hand over villages from Tavush Province to Azerbaijan.

"We went to Tavush in order to explain as much as possible what the handing over of villages from Tavush and other provinces could lead to. Our public should know that if villages are handed over from Tavush and Azerbaijanis are stationed there—like, for example, on the Goris-Kapan road, it destroys our most equipped frontline. The 3rd Defensive District is one of our most protected districts, and it is thanks to that frontline that we have not seen attacks in that direction after 2020. Now if we bring, we deploy Azerbaijani [army] units behind that frontline, it completely destroys the security system of Tavush, and we will have a new aggravated security crisis," said Vardanyan.

The second circumstance, according to her, is that the Armenian people should know that in the case of handing over those four villages to Azerbaijan, the latter’s troops will be stationed at five places on the Yerevan-Tbilisi interstate road, and the latter will become unusable for Armenia.

"With that road, in fact, under the name of unblocking communications in the region, Armenia will be completely under blockade. It turns out that Azerbaijanis will be sitting on the roads connecting Armenia to Iran and Georgia. We will become a unique enclave," said the opposition MP.

"The third problem is that if Azerbaijanis are stationed in even one place, they are stationed 10-20 meters away from our houses, schools, public facilities, community buildings. It will make it impossible to live and work in a natural way there. We will have an exodus from Tavush.

The fourth problem is that Verin Voskepar [village] is located in the rear, has no land connection with Azerbaijan. After bringing Azerbaijanis to Verin Voskepar, the next demand [by Azerbaijan] will be to provide a land connection with Azerbaijan towards there. That is, it does not end with this, but begins a new phase of handover. Then how many of us know that the [natural] gas pipeline coming to Armenia passes through Verin Voskepar?

Another fact that the vast majority of our [Armenian] public does not imagine: For example, how many [people] know that if Azerbaijani control is established in Verin Voskepar, Lori Province becomes a province with a border with Azerbaijan, with consequences arising from it. How can this topic be discussed in general, declaring in advance that these territories belong to Azerbaijan?" said the Armenian opposition legislator.

She noted that if the Armenian state policy is about handing over, a person, an individual, can only act heroically, but the land is not saved by it.

"If the head of the country signs the handover of the land, the only thing left for the individual is either to retreat or become a hero.

We can overcome this security crisis only with state resources. State representatives should sense that in case of going that way, they will lose everything they have.

The power is not for bonus pays and trips, it is for ensuring security. And they should sense that they will have problems in case of going this way. Only then can we avoid a very big security crisis," concluded Kristine Vardanyan.