Claims on the so-called "occupation" of some Armenia's square kilometers by Azerbaijan are absolutely unfounded, Azerbaijan's Presidential Representative for Special Assignments Elchin Amirbayov told Estonian Public Broadcasting (ERR) company.
"Let's look at the history of the issue. For 28 years, the territory that Armenia may consider its own, was occupied by the country's armed forces. If you look at the map, the southern part of our conditional border - from the Azerbaijani side, these are Zangilan, Gubadli, and other districts - was completely under the armed occupation of Armenia," Amirbayov said.
There was no border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, or the illeal separatist regime in Karabakh.
"This is, of course, their assessment - that Azerbaijan allegedly 'invaded' their territory. We have a completely different position. On the contrary, we believe that a part of Azerbaijani territory is still under the occupation of Armenia," Amirbayov said.
He explained that four villages in the Gazakh district north of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border are still occupied by Armenia. Besides these, there are three Azerbaijani enclaves and one Armenian enclave that are controlled by the opposite side.
"So, before making any unfounded claims that 'someone has occupied my territory', I would advise our Armenian neighbors to take the process of demarcation more seriously, because the only measure of which territory belongs to whom is the agreement that we will reach on the demarcation of our future state border. In the absence of such an agreement, talking about someone occupying something is counterproductive," Amirbayov said.
From its side, Azerbaijan has done everything to demonstrate to Yerevan its sincere interest in completing this work. he said, noting that in the last meeting of the delegations of the two countries the Azerbaijani side proposed to the Armenian side to consider and agree on normative documents that would lay the foundation for the work of the demarcation commission.
