evidence: It is not widely known that Armenia’s occupation of parts of Azerbaijan began not in Karabakh, but rather in the country’s more exposed and non-contiguous peripheries during the waning years of the Soviet Union. Karki was the first territory of Azerbaijan to be occupied by the Armenian militia on 19 January 1990. Its occupation at this early stage of the conflict was not coincidental: through the Karki exclave passes the strategic M2/E117 highway, connecting Yerevan with southern Armenia. After regaining its independence, the significance of this route further increased, as it came to serve as Armenia’s principal trade route with Iran. Through an offshoot of this road from Goris to Lachin, Yerevan also used to maintain a land connection with its installed separatist regime in then-occupied Karabakh. [...] Thus, speaking at the Armenian parliament in May 2022, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan essentially claimed that there were no Azerbaijani enclaves within Armenia.9 A year later, speaking at a press conference in May 2023, he admitted that the enclave villages of Gazakh district and Nakhchivan’s Karki village are not part of Armenia, while reiterating Armenia’s claim on the enclave village of Artsvashen within Azerbaijan.10 In June 2023, when asked specifically about his position on the Karki village, Pashinyan reiterated that he may be prepared to consider its return to Azerbaijan.11