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Armenia, Azerbaijan Deny Agreeing Return to 1975 Borders

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Armenia and Azerbaijan denied on Monday that a deal between them was in the pipeline to draw demarcation lines based on 1975 maps.
Sputnik
On Sunday, Armenian Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan had said in a televised commentary that the leaders of the two South Caucasus countries had made some progress in border dispute talks in Moldova on June 1, agreeing to use Soviet-era maps as the basis for border demarcation talks.
Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry strongly denied the claim on Monday, accusing the Armenian security chief of trying to "distort the essence of the issues".
"Instead of insisting on a special reference to some map from 1975, it would be more useful for the Armenian side to start the delimitation work," the statement read.
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan confirmed on Monday that no agreement had been reached at the negotiations in Moldova, but added that Armenia considers the 1975 borders acceptable.
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Mirzoyan reiterated Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's assurances that Armenia recognizes Azerbaijan's territorial claims as set out in the 1991 Almaty Declaration. Pashinyan said Azerbaijan should discuss ownership of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region with local authorities.
"Neither the people of Nagorno-Karabakh nor their elected administration have asked us to negotiate their status. We are not negotiating their status," Mirzoyan said.
"The Republic of Armenia has always recognized and still recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. We are aware of Azerbaijan's commitment to respect Armenia's territorial integrity," he added.
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