Azerbaijan's border service has taken control of four villages in the Gazakh district on the border with Armenia under an agreement struck with Yerevan, Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev said on Friday, May 24, Reuters reports.

The size of the territory ceded to Azerbaijan by Armenia under a border delimitation agreement on Friday was 6.5 square kilometres, Mustafayev said.

In April, Armenia said it would return the uninhabited villages to Azerbaijan, which both sides said was a milestone on the road towards a peace deal between Yerevan and Baku who have clashed for more than three decades.

The decision by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to hand over the four villages has triggered protests, with demonstrators calling for him to step down over what they cast as a betrayal.