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Armenia says Azerbaijani forces remain in Syunik, demands their withdrawal

Armenia’s Defense Ministry noted that Azerbaijani forces "must return to their original positions without any preconditions"

YEREVAN, May 15. /TASS/. The situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border remains unresolved, Azerbaijani Armed Forces’ units remain there, Armenia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

"As of the morning of May 15, the situation that arose after the Azerbaijani Armed Forces’ incursion into certain border territories of the Syunik and Gegharkunik regions of Armenia on May 12-13 under the pretext of adjusting the border has remained unresolved. Despite the fact that the Azerbaijani military had to leave some areas due to Armenian units’ actions, some of them are still on the territory of Armenia," the statement reads.

The ministry stressed that "encroachment on Armenia’s sovereign territories is absolutely inadmissible" and noted that Azerbaijani forces "must return to their original positions without any preconditions."

According to its press service, the negotiations on a peaceful settlement of the situation are expected to continue on Saturday.

On Wednesday, the Armenian Defense Ministry said that Azerbaijan’s armed forces had tried to carry out "certain work" early in the morning in one of the border districts of the Syunik Province. Later in the evening that day, Pashinyan said that the Azerbaijani armed forces had crossed Armenia’s state border, advancing 3.5 kilometers deep into its territory.

After the end of hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone last autumn, when seven districts adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh came under Baku’s control, the Armenian-Azerbaijani border started to run along an area in close proximity to the Syunik and Gegharkunik regions. Territorial disputes between the two sides have surfaced from time to time.