News - Armenia FM reiterates PM's arguments on handover of 4 villages in Tavush Province to Azerbaijan

The Armenian authorities are not negotiating the handover of the four Armenian villages in Tavush Province. This was stated Friday by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ararat Mirzoyan, during the discussions of the report on the progress and results of the 2023 implementation of the 2021-2026 program of the Armenian government at the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations of the National Assembly. According to him, no official in Armenia has the right to negotiate the handing over of villages, territories, plots of land in Tavush Province and any other province of the country. "This is an axiomatic truth. There are guarantees within which the legal mechanisms operate. Therefore, we are not conducting negotiations on the handover of Tavush villages," added the Armenian PM. Prime Minister Pashinyan had made similar arguments in his recent press conference, claiming that Armenian villages are not being handed over to Azerbaijan, and there are no villages with Azerbaijani names in Armenia. Azerbaijan demands four villages which are located in Tavush Province, and some of them are located on the Armenia-Georgia motorway. In Azerbaijan, all settlements of Armenia—including the capital Yerevan—are called by distorted Azerbaijani place names.