Armenian Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan yesterday said Armenia and Azerbaijan will sign a peace deal by the end of the year.

Grigoryan, on Public TV yesterday, said the process to mark the border between the two countries will also begin by the end of the year, noting the two processes are linked.

“Armenia's concern is that after the peace treaty, Azerbaijan may use the so-called non-demarcated border as an excuse to attack Armenia, that's why this issue was discussed,” Grigoryan said referring to a September 27 meeting he had with Azerbaijani Presidential Foreign Policy Adviser Hikmet Hajiyev in Washington D.C. U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

Grigoryan said Yerevan continues to push its demand that Azerbaijani troops withdraw from Armenian territory and that there can be no talk of extraterritorial corridors.

He said that they discussed the return of seventeen Armenia prisoners during last month’s fighting along the border and the return of 33 Armenian prisoners confirmed earlier.