Kirants as Political lesson: Where Armenian myths end

On the penultimate day of 2025, the Armenian media reported on the trip of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, along with Parliament Speaker Alain Simonyan and a group of citizens to the village of Kirants bordering Azerbaijan.

This is a village in the Tavush region of Armenia, located on a section of the state border, where delimitation and demarcation was carried out in May 2024. After the installation of the last border pillar, the construction of the wall began on the Armenian side. And they built it. It is Armenia's personal business to build walls. In any case, if something happens in Kirantz now, no one will be able to blame the Azerbaijani border guards for this. What happens behind the wall is none of our business.

Pashinyan had already taken a group of 50 members of the public to Kirants in early December. The Armenian Prime Minister is trying to make what is happening on the border with Azerbaijan as public as possible, so that Armenians can finally realize the benefits of peace and the legitimacy of borders. So that they understand that their imaginary world has changed forever and there is no escape from reality. Most of them do not realize this yet, being hooked by revanchist propaganda, which assures Armenians that the border wall in Kirants is a symbol of defeat and shame, not legitimacy. They are trying to convince Armenians that the territories returned to Azerbaijan, which were illegally occupied by the Armenian side during the occupation, are "occupied" and not liberated. This, accordingly, damages the government's reputation, although its acceptance of reality only benefits Armenia.

From the day of the occupation in 1993 until May 2024, the residents of Kirants lived in illusions, considering everything around them to be the property of Armenia. They built houses, retail outlets, and farms on Azerbaijani territory. Two generations have grown up confidently trampling on their neighbor's occupied land. Today's Kiranchats, as one of the ideologists of Armenian revanchism said, do not know what Azerbaijanis look like at all. And, moreover, no one told them that their daddies graze their sheep on other people's pastures. More precisely, they grazed. They have always been taught that Armenia is everywhere. Of course, for many residents of Kirantz, it was a difficult awakening when it turned out that they had occupied someone else's land for thirty years.

The opposition is trying to play on this chord. And not unsuccessfully. The topic of the "occupied territories" and the allegedly violated Armenian territorial integrity is also being discussed in the media, on social networks, and in international organizations. And a paradox arises: European structures that have never demanded the liberation of Azerbaijani territories are raising their voices for the territorial integrity of Armenia. But the saddest thing is that this paradoxical support allows the Armenian opposition to fool the masses more confidently.

Pashinyan gave members of the public a tour, showed them a newly built school, a church under restoration, houses under construction, and even fortifications on the border and the weapons of the border guards. The Armenian Prime minister tried to explain almost on his fingers that legitimacy is a great blessing that brings security, tranquility and ensures rights. "I know that I am in a place where no one in the world disputes our right to be here," he said. - It is also important to understand why we are going to Kirantz. To show what we mean by the Real Armenia: the main component of the Real Armenia is legitimacy."

All right. For thirty years, Armenians have lived in conditions of lack of legitimacy in the border villages and in the occupied territories. They received documents from their authorities securing ownership rights, but all these pieces of paper were annulled by default after the 2020 war, and the far-fetched legitimacy of Armenians living on the occupied lands of Azerbaijan completely disappeared. Now Pashinyan is trying to return legitimacy to Armenia, only legally. And this is being done in the face of serious resistance and opposition within the country itself.

Nevertheless, the process is underway. As Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov told reporters at a press conference following the results of 2025, the delimitation work has not been suspended and continues. The commissions of both countries are working intensively. The Foreign Minister stressed that the process is not limited to meetings. Delimitation is an extremely complex and multi-step process involving a large number of technical details. In general, Bayramov noted, agreement has been reached on a common approach. It consists in the fact that the delimitation will be carried out from north to south. The process will not be a one-time one - it will be implemented in stages. The issues of enclave and exclave territories will also find their solution, the head of Azerbaijani diplomacy stressed.

The 12th meeting of the State Commission on the Delimitation of the State Border between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Armenia and the Commission on the Delimitation of the State Border and Border Security between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan was held in Gabala on November 28, under the chairmanship of the Deputy Prime Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia. This event can be called historic, as for the first time in the years of independence, an Armenian statesman legitimately visited Azerbaijan. The trips of officials from Yerevan to the occupied territories during the conflict years did not count, as they were illegal.

The next meeting of the state commissions, apparently, will be held in Armenia. This was stated earlier in the message of the Secretariat of the State Commission of Azerbaijan. These plans were also confirmed by Jeyhun Bayramov at a press conference.

The process is underway. In mid-December, the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides inspected the border in the area of the Zod (Seudlu) gold deposit in the Gegharkunik region of Armenia. The inspection confirmed that the Armenian side is not carrying out any work at the mine until the delimitation and establishment of clear boundaries in the area of the Zod mine. The journalists went to the government for explanations, and Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan, responding to a question about the need to hold a referendum before delimiting the border, cautiously explained that the work is regulated by Armenian law, as well as the regulations on the joint activities of the delimitation commissions of Armenia and Azerbaijan, ratified by Parliament. He also announced that the next stage of delimitation may take place out of turn in the Syunik region, in areas related to the TRIPP project.

On the issue of the "referendum". The journalist who asked it is not the only one who is particularly gifted. At the suggestion of the same opposition, there is an opinion in the Armenian society that the restoration of state borders should be based on the expression of the people's will. In other words, the Armenian people, not international law, should decide where to draw the border with Azerbaijan. It is noteworthy that the majority are still convinced that the 35-year-old "referendum" in Khankendi was legitimate, and the Armenians there had the right to decide whether to withdraw to Armenia along with other lands or not.

It goes without saying that the issue of delimitation of borders is not resolved by the national assembly. Which side of the border to live on is up to the citizens themselves, but where exactly the border will run is beyond their competence. The borders between Azerbaijan and Armenia will run along the line along which they are recognized by the UN and enshrined in international law. The opinion of the residents of the same Kiran is not taken into account. They protested a lot, set on fire by the revanchists, but it didn't give results. Someone lost their home, someone a store, someone a vegetable garden. Yes, one could sympathize if it weren't for one thing - compared to the unprecedented losses suffered by the Azerbaijanis of Armenia and the occupied territories, these houses and shops are just a drop in the ocean.

In the early post-war years, Nikol Pashinyan himself tried to bargain with Baku on the issue of the Azerbaijani exclaves, putting forward some kind of counterclaims. In that situation, a funny myth was born about the "31 occupied Armenian villages", for which Yerevan was going to exchange the exclaves of Azerbaijan. It didn't work out. In the words of a famous character, bargaining is inappropriate here. No exchanges, no concessions. Moreover, Baku demanded the immediate return of four of the eight exclave villages, pointing out that this issue is not linked to the general topic of delimitation. And very soon, the talk about "31 occupied villages" disappeared from the official agenda of Yerevan. Instead, Nikol Pashinyan armed himself with a cardboard cutout of a map of Armenia within its precise internationally recognized borders.

On April 19, 2024, the delimitation commissions agreed on the passage of separate sections of the border line directly between the settlements of Baganis (Armenia) - Baganis Hayrim (Azerbaijan), Voskepar (Armenia) - Ashagi Askipara (Azerbaijan), Kirants (Armenia) - Kheiramli (Azerbaijan) and Berkaber (Armenia) - Gizil Hajili (Azerbaijan), in order to bring them in line with the legally justified border that existed at the time of the collapse of the USSR. In early June of the same year, Armenia and Azerbaijan announced the completion of the first phase of delimitation. At the first stage, a 12.6-kilometer section of the border between the Tavush and Tovuz districts of the two republics was delimited.

During these two months, passions were boiling in Kirantz. It was with the events around this village that the pop fraudster Bagrat Galstanyan, who is currently resting behind bars, began his "glorious" path. The elderly villagers, those who participated in the occupation of Kheiramli and believed that they had won the right to live on the occupied land, for which their "heroes" died, demanded to leave the border where it had been for thirty years. "We won't give it back, and that's it," they declared menacingly, posing in front of the cameras of foreign and local journalists. The leaders of the community went to Yerevan with some proposals, but they did not listen to them there. The village head was shown the correct map of Armenia with holes in the place of the Azerbaijani exclaves. The headman returned empty-handed and resigned from his post. He could do nothing for the hysterical population. Because everything has a price. There was no need to build a school 50 meters from the occupied Azerbaijani village, and even after the 44-day war, when the balance of power was already completely clear. There was no need to sow fields and vegetable gardens on someone else's territory. There was no need to settle in the houses of the exiled and murdered Azerbaijanis. At least they would be afraid of international law. When the time of "x" comes, it becomes a very convincing force and a weapon against which there is no escape. And Azerbaijan took advantage of it when that time came. 

After Nikol Pashinyan organized a New Year's Eve tour for members of the public to the border town of Kirants, the opposition media turned against the Prime Minister with renewed vigor. A politician who aspires to give Armenia a real future has been branded and crucified. And the Armenians were promised new "losses" in the coming year. We wish Nikola Vovaevich patience and strength to go through what lies ahead. As the peace process progresses, the opposition of nationalist forces will also escalate.

Nevertheless, Azerbaijan has certain hopes for 2026. In the sixth year after the end of the Karabakh conflict, it's time to start moving on.