The Armenian government on Thursday, September 5 approved the ratification of regulations for the delimitation of the border with Azerbaijan.

As reported earlier, the delimitation and demarcation of Armenia’s border with Azerbaijani will not necessarily be based on a 1991 declaration championed by Yerevan, according to a new agreement signed by the two countries on Friday and publicized on Monday.

The agreement involves “regulations” for joint activities of their respective commissions dealing with the border delimitation process. It does not specify which maps, if any, will be used by the two sides. It only refers to the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration in which Armenia, Azerbaijan and other newly independent republics recognized each other’s Soviet-era borders. The declaration does not contain detailed descriptions of those borders, RFE/RL’s Armenian service reported earlier.

“If in the future the [separate] agreement on the establishment of peace and interstate relations between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan provides for other regulations, then this fundamental principle will be brought into conformity with the principles defined by the above-mentioned agreement,” reads the document released by the Armenian government.

The six other articles of the “regulations” are also short on specifics. One of them envisages the possibility of “optimizing” the heavily militarized frontier for humanitarian, cultural and economic reasons. According to Ruben Galchian, a leading Armenian cartographer, this means two governments could “deviate” from Soviet maps to delineate at least some border sections.