Armenia and Azerbaijan Consider Land Swap to Resolve Long-Disputed Enclaves

Armenia and Azerbaijan are discussing a land swap that could permanently change parts of their shared border, allowing both countries to keep territories they currently control rather than return them to their Soviet-era owners.

Armenian Security Council Secretary Alen Simonyan confirmed the discussions Friday, October 16, saying one proposal would allow Armenia to retain Tigranashen, while Azerbaijan would keep Artsvashen, an Armenian village it has controlled since 1992.

The arrangement would resolve the status of two disputed territories without requiring either country to surrender control of the villages it currently administers.

Simonyan said the proposal was possible but stopped short of suggesting that an agreement had been reached.

The discussions follow remarks by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan earlier this week calling for a territorial exchange that would eliminate enclaves and exclaves along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

Several villages became isolated from their respective countries after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Some remain under the control of the neighboring state, making their status a longstanding issue in border negotiations.

Pashinyan identified five locations under consideration: Tigranashen, Barkhudarlu, Sofulu, Askipara and Artsvashen.

He suggested that Armenia and Azerbaijan could exchange equivalent areas of land, creating a continuous border instead of leaving villages surrounded by another country's territory.

In the case of Artsvashen, Pashinyan described a possible arrangement in which Armenia would receive land connecting the village's territory to the rest of the country. Such an exchange would require adjustments to the existing border.

Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said Friday that Yerevan and Baku had reached a mutual understanding about the general approach, although he emphasized that the land swap remained only one possible solution.

He did not say when that understanding was reached or what specific territories might be exchanged.

Pashinyan previously said he had discussed the issue during an informal meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Turkmenistan.

Azerbaijan has not publicly responded to the Armenian officials' statements.

The proposal has raised concerns among Armenia's opposition, which questions both its legal basis and its potential consequences for the country's security.

Artur Khachatryan, secretary of the opposition Armenia Alliance parliamentary faction, described the proposed exchange as more dangerous than the current situation.

He argued that the arrangement could leave Armenia worse off than simply transferring Tigranashen to Azerbaijani control and demanded that the government explain its legal authority to negotiate such changes.

The government's own statements have also left questions about how far the negotiations have progressed.

While Mirzoyan spoke of a mutual understanding, Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan, Armenia's chief negotiator on border delimitation, said Friday that no agreement had been reached.

Grigoryan declined to reveal what proposals Armenia had submitted to Azerbaijan, saying negotiations were taking place through the established bilateral commissions.

He insisted that the government had publicly reported on its approximately 13 meetings with Azerbaijani representatives and that no separate border delimitation process was underway.

The debate comes two years after Armenia transferred control of several border areas in its northern Tavush region to Azerbaijan as part of a delimitation agreement.

Before those transfers in 2024, Grigoryan had denied that the specific border delimitation agenda was being discussed with Baku. Within two months, the territories were handed over in what the government called a pilot border delimitation process.

That experience has renewed questions about how much information the Armenian public is receiving as negotiations over the remaining disputed territories continue.

The government has not released a map of the proposed exchange, identified the exact amount of land involved or explained how the arrangement would affect nearby communities.

Mirzoyan has also left open the possibility that the two countries could address the enclaves before completing work on other sections of their border.

For now, the discussions remain preliminary. But if Armenia and Azerbaijan agree to exchange territory, the decision could settle disputes that have persisted for more than three decades while permanently changing the border between the two countries.

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