VOSKEPAR (TIP): Peering through the window at a bustling crowd outside the Voskepar village council in northeastern Armenia, mayor Ishkhan Aghbalyan said locals are on edge over arch-foe Azerbaijan’s claims to their lands.
The small village’s residents are gathering daily to share their fears since Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signalled in March his readiness to make territorial concessions to Baku to put some momentum into stalled peace talks.
Voskepar could end up isolated from the rest of the country and some houses could fall into territory controlled by mortal enemy Azerbaijan, as many Armenians view their Caucasus neighbour.
“Folks here are worried that we might lose our territory to Azerbaijan and our security concerns will not get sorted if that happens,” said Aghbalyan.
One of the men in the crowd, 38-year-old Edgar Grigoryan said: “Voskepar men are getting together to talk about the land that might end up going to Azerbaijan. Our security is on the line here.”
“If the Azerbaijanis roll in, our little village will be stranded, cut off from Yerevan, stuck in some kind of blockade,” he added.
‘Cede what is not ours’
Last autumn, Azerbaijani troops recaptured the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region from Armenian separatists in a lightning offensive that effectively ended a bloody three-decade standoff between the Caucasus neighbours over control of the mountainous region. (AP)