Armenia announced Friday that it will return four villages to Azerbaijan as a result of the 8th meeting of the State Commission on the Delimitation of the State Border between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Armenia. The announcement was shared in a press release published by Armenian state media.

A spokesperson for the Azerbaijan Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the event as “historic.” A day before the agreement, Armenia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs stated in an interview that if the transport infrastructure is unblocked in the South Caucasus, it will become a significant factor for peace and stability in the region.

The UN Secretary-General welcomed the agreement and encouraged the parties to continue the delimitation and demarcation process of the remaining sections of the border and work towards fully normalizing their relations.

Aside from being a preliminary delimitation process, the two countries agreed that the borderline would be in compliance with the legal border that existed within the Soviet Union at the moment of its dissolution.

The agreement comes a month after Armenia’s Prime Minister stated that his country would likely have to concede four frontier villages to Azerbaijan as part of a push for peace. Saturday, Russia withdrew its FSB Border Guards from the newly-delimited border, as the two countries agreed to deploy their own border services. Until the delimitation process is fully completed, sections of the border will be considered delimited.

A number of locals in the Tavush region of Armenia have been protesting for two days, reportedly completely halting circulation between Armenia and Georgia, while they claim that the border will be very close to their villages, giving Azerbaijan effective control of the territory.