Armenia has denied reports of disputes between Armenian and Azerbaijani border guards over a new road being built to circumvent Azerbaijani territory recently handed over by Armenia.
On Tuesday, Armenia’s National Security Service denied that any incident had taken place on the recently delimited parts of the northern Armenia–Azerbaijan border, telling RFE/RL that the new road passes ‘entirely through the territory of Armenia’.
The new road is an alternative to a section of a major transit route leading to Georgia that was handed over to Azerbaijan as part of the delimitation process earlier this year. The delimitation process in Armenia’s Tavush Province prompted criticism from local residents and a series of mass protests organised and led by Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan’s Tavush for the Motherland Movement.
Reports of tensions between the border guards first emerged in July, with Hraparak citing sources as saying that two disputes had taken place near the newly built road near the village of Kirants.
In an interview with Hraparak, Garnik Daniel, an opposition MP from the Armenia Alliance faction, said that ‘Azerbaijani border guards came and got into an argument with Armenian border guards’ over the road.
He again cited information he had received from residents of Kirants about the exchanges between Armenian and Azerbaijani border guards in an interview with RFE/RL.
Despite Armenia denying the altercations, one Kirants resident told RFE/RL that the Azerbaijani side took ‘some measurements’ after which they insisted the road was being built inside Azerbaijan’s borders.
Over a week after Hraparak reported on the alleged dispute, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan visited Kirants on 3 August to review progress on the road’s construction. The site was reportedly off-limits to journalists.
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