Pashinyan proposes border swap to eliminate all Armenian-Azerbaijani enclaves

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan described a peace framework in which Armenia would retain a territory of 29,743 square kilometres, with borders defined by the Alma-Ata Declaration, while swapping equally sized areas with Azerbaijan to eradicate all enclaves and exclaves. The four disputed clusters—Karki, Barkhudarlyu, Yukhari Askipara and Artsvashen—originated from 1920s Soviet border drawings that ignored geography. Pashinyan said the exchange would also keep transit routes open beyond the so-called Trump Route (TRIPP).

He indicated that recent contacts with President Ilham Aliyev in Turkmenistan gave him confidence that such a territorial swap could be achieved. Both leaders attended the Caspian Environmental Summit on 9 October, but their offices denied any side-by-side meeting. The proposal builds on the 2025 US-brokered Washington summit that produced a draft peace treaty but left border delimitation unresolved.