{"id":45867,"date":"2026-04-28T20:16:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T20:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/media.am\/?p=45867"},"modified":"2026-04-28T20:20:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T20:20:50","slug":"no-evidence-behind-recurring-jiliza-handover-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/verified\/2026\/04\/28\/45867\/","title":{"rendered":"No Evidence Behind Recurring Jiliza Handover Claim"},"content":{"rendered":"

On April 27-28, several Georgian media outlets and Facebook pages reported that Armenia was considering handing over the village of Jiliza, which is part of the Alaverdi community, to Georgia following the demarcation.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Commersant.ge<\/span><\/a> (archive<\/a>), Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that, upon completion of the demarcation of the Armenian-Georgian border, the village of Jiliza in Armenia, which borders Georgia, will be handed over to Georgia.<\/p>\n

The news was further published by Mtavari<\/span><\/a> (arch.<\/a>), Vector News<\/a> (arch<\/a>.), and published today on the Armenian website yerkir.am<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The news followed Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s April 27 speech commemorating the Day of the Border Guard Troops of the National Security Service. During his address, Pashinyan noted<\/a> that finalizing the demarcation process with neighbouring countries is a priority, specifically noting that completing the demarcation with Georgia is currently on the agenda.<\/p>\n

“Of course, summing up the demarcation of our border with Georgia with our Georgian partners is also on our agenda. We have already reached agreements on this, and with this, in essence, the demarcation and delimitation of the borders of the Republic of Armenia will be summed up, and our state will have the opportunity to more confidently focus on the development agenda in its internationally recognised territory,” said Nikol Pashinyan.<\/p>\n

However, the media distorted the content of the statement, attributing words to Pashinyan that he did not say. In particular, there was no public statement regarding the possibility of handing over the village of Jiliza.<\/span><\/p>\n

On April 28, the Prime Minister\u2019s spokesperson, Nazeli Baghdasaryan, denied<\/a> the reports of the handover of the village.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny statement, idea, or piece of information regarding the intention, plan, or agreement to transfer any part of the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia to another country is inherently false,\u201d she wrote on her Facebook page.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The information had been previously spread in 2024 <\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Media.am’<\/a>s fact-checking team, “Verified,” addressed<\/a> claims regarding Jiliza’s alleged transfer on April 3, 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n

This discussion was prompted by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s March 25 statement<\/a>, in which he discussed the possibility of activating the demarcation process between Armenia and Georgia. Pashinyan made this statement during a press conference following his meeting with the Georgian Prime Minister.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the same day, Facebook user Gagik Hambaryan claimed that Nikol Pashinyan would present Jiliza to the Georgians, citing “circulating information.” This information was spread by 168.am and<\/span><\/a> <\/span>livenews.am<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

On March 27, the Zhoghovurd daily reported<\/a>, citing “circulating information,” that Prime Minister Pashinyan was initiating the border demarcation and delimitation process with Georgia, demonstrating a willingness to cede certain territories, particularly the village of Jiliza. The media outlet had reached out to the Prime Minister’s spokesperson, Nazeli Baghdasaryan, who stated, “Currently, there is nothing beyond the Prime Minister’s statement.<\/p>\n

Many news websites, including news.am<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>asekose.am<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>operativ.am<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>mamul.am<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>168.am<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>armday.am<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>aravot.am<\/span><\/a> republished the news. Subsequently, it also spread to the Azerbaijani<\/a> media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It is important to note that all these media outlets spread information based solely on “long-circulating rumours,” with no evidence to support the claims.<\/p>\n

“Verified” submitted a formal request to the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs on March 27, 2024, to confirm the authenticity of the information regarding the handover of the village of Jiliza.<\/p>\n

On April 3, the ministry responded<\/a>, stating that aside from the agreement to intensify demarcation efforts, no additional agreements had been reached. Furthermore, the meeting of the Demarcation Commissions has not yet occurred. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also highlighted that the Memorandum on Strategic Cooperation, signed by the Prime Ministers of Armenia and Georgia in January 2024, affirms that both countries mutually recognize each other’s territorial integrity.<\/p>\n

“The terms for resuming joint work are currently being discussed with the Georgian side, and information about the work of the Commissions will be shared in official statements. The Commission has not yet held a meeting.<\/p>\n

However, we would like to note that during recent contacts between high-ranking representatives of Armenia and Georgia, there was a general understanding of the need to activate efforts toward the demarcation and delimitation of the interstate border between the two countries. No other agreements have been reached at this time.<\/p>\n

Additionally, we would like to emphasize that the Memorandum on Strategic Cooperation, signed by the Prime Ministers of Armenia and Georgia in January of this year, clearly states that both countries mutually recognize each other\u2019s territorial integrity. Therefore, the rumor that Jiliza will be handed over to Georgia lacks any factual basis,” was written in the response.<\/p>\n

Thus, the circulating rumour that Jiliza will be handed over to Georgia lacks any ground.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On April 27-28, several Georgian media outlets and Facebook pages reported that Armenia was considering handing over the village of Jiliza, which is part of the Alaverdi community, to Georgia following the demarcation. According to Commersant.ge (archive), Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that, upon completion of the demarcation of the Armenian-Georgian border, the village Read the full article…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":186,"featured_media":45846,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[212,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-post","category-verified","author_posts-ophelia-simonyan-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/186"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45867"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45871,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45867\/revisions\/45871"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}