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AzerNEWS Staff

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Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has reaffirmed his use of the name Karki for the settlement known as Tigranashen in Armenia, saying the name reflects the settlement's historical status.

Speaking in the Armenian parliament, Pashinyan said he called the settlement Karki because “Karki is Karki”, according to Armenian sources.

“If it were not Karki, I would not call it Karki,” Pashinyan said, responding to questions about the settlement, which Armenia refers to as Tigranashen.

Addressing the legal dimension of the issue, the Armenian prime minister again referred to the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration and maps that were in force at the time as the basis for determining the origin and status of former enclaves.

Pashinyan has previously referred to the Alma-Ata Declaration as a key framework for recognising the territorial integrity and borders of the former Soviet republics following the dissolution of the USSR.

The remarks come amid continuing discussions over border delimitation between Armenia and Azerbaijan, including the status of areas that were formerly administered as enclaves or exclaves during the Soviet period.

Karki, also known in Armenia as Tigranashen, is located in Armenia's Ararat Province, near the border with Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. The settlement was formerly an Azerbaijani-populated enclave within the territory of Soviet Armenia.

The status of former enclaves has remained part of the broader debate surrounding the delimitation and demarcation of the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.

By invoking the Alma-Ata Declaration and contemporaneous maps, Pashinyan again placed the question within the framework of the borders inherited by the former Soviet republics after 1991.

The Armenian and Azerbaijani sides have been engaged in a bilateral process of border delimitation, with the issue of territorial boundaries forming a central element of the wider peace process between the two countries.