Putin agrees to withdraw Russian border guards from Armenia-Iran border

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed that it is only Armenian border guards that are going to stand on guard at the checkpoint between Armenia and Iran from January 1, 2025. Russian border guards have thus completed 32 years of service at Yerevan's Zvartnots Airport in July.

Photo: commons.wikimedia.org by Kober, PDM

From January 1, 2025, Russian border guards will stop serving at the checkpoint on the border between Armenia and Iran. This was agreed upon during a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Pashinyan thanked Putin for the service of the Russian border guards.

There is one checkpoint on the Armenian-Iranian border — Karchevan.

Moscow and Yerevan signed an agreement on the deployment of Russian border guards on the territory of the republic on September 30, 1992. According to the Agreement on the Status of the Russian Border Troops, they guard Armenia's borders with Iran and Turkey. The governments of the two states provided approximately equal support for the Russian border guards in the republic.

On July 31, Russian border guards completed their service at Zvartnots Airport in Yerevan.

In May, Kremlin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that Putin and Pashinyan agreed to withdraw Russian border guards from a number of regions of Armenia. However, he clarified that Russian border guards would remain on the border with Iran and Turkey at Armenia's request.

Armenia ready to sign peace treaty with Azerbaijan

Armenia is ready to sign a peace agreement with Azerbaijan this month, Prime Minister of the Republic Nikol Pashinyan said.

"I think that we have enough agreed content to sign [the peace treaty] right now,” Pashinyan said after a meeting with the leaders of CIS member states in the Kremlin.

In turn, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that the agreement would be signed if the parties could agree on all points. The leaders of the two countries did not answer the question of who could mediate a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Nikol Pashinyan and Ilham Aliyev were seated next to each other at a meeting in the Kremlin on October 8.

Details

Armenia officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to the east, and Iran and the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan to the south. Yerevan is the capital, largest city and financial center.

Azerbaijan officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and West Asia. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia's republic of Dagestan to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia and Turkey to the west, and Iran to the south. Baku is the capital and largest city.