Azerbaijan is distorting clause 9 of the 2020 November 9 trilateral statement which is about the restoration of all transport and economic connections in the region and the opening of the road linking Azerbaijan’s western regions with Nakhijevan, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the Cabinet meeting.
“You know that Armenia presented comprehensive proposals on this matter. Without going into details, the essence of our proposal is the following: rebuild the Yeraskh-Julfa-Ordubad-Meghri-Horadiz railway, reopen or build a road, which will also link Azerbaijan’s western regions with Nakhijevan, by conducting border, customs and other control at border checkpoints,” Pashinyan said.
Pashinyan mentioned that Azerbaijan is both accepting and not accepting this proposal, manifested when Baku says they agree to any legal regime for the launch of that road but the same regime must be applied in the Lachin corridor and they cite the November 9 state as a substantiation for this.
“This narrative is unfounded for two reasons: First of all, the November 9 statement doesn’t mention anything about any territory of the Republic of Armenia and any corridor relating to it, but it does contain the Lachin corridor term. The Lachin corridor is not, or isn’t simply a road, it is rather a territory of 5 kilometers width. According to the trilateral statement that entire territory is under the Russian peacekeeping control. Clause 9 of the trilateral statement simply doesn’t contain anything about any other country’s control on any territory of Armenia. And then, parallels between Nagorno-Karabakh and Nakhijevan are strange for several reasons. First of all, Nakhijevan has land connection with Azerbaijan through Iran and Turkey. And it has air connection through the airspaces of Iran, Turkey and Armenia.
Nagorno-Karabakh only has land connection with Armenia, only through the Lachin corridor, and making the Lachin corridor a territory in any way controlled by Azerbaijan would mean one thing – the exodus of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh,” Pashinyan said.
Pashinyan said the comparisons of the Lachin corridor with the road in question through Armenian territory is unacceptable, and that the November 9 statement doesn’t envisage any corridor through the territory of Armenia and that Armenia has not accepted and will not accept any corridor logic.
