According to political scientist Beniamin Poghosyan, the closure of the Karmrakar-Shurnukh section of the Kapan-Goris road by the Azerbaijanis is an excuse; if this incident did not happen, something else would have. During the discussion in the Article 3 club, the political scientist said that the road did not pass under Azerbaijani control with the trilateral statement of November 9th or 10th.
That statement referred to Nagorno Karabakh, and according to that statement, the troops should remain in the positions where they were located. The Armenian troops were in that area 50-10 kilometers ahead. They withdrew on December 17-18 based on verbal agreements, and based on those verbal agreements, the Armenian troops had to be located exclusively inside the Soviet borders. According to the political scientist, the reason why Azerbaijan is taking such steps has to do with the formation of a government in Armenia and the end of that process.
“Azerbaijan is sending messages that it is time to implement the agreements according to which Azerbaijan would have a road to Nakhichevan via Syunik with railway and road communication, they were waiting until June 20, and so on. Now Azerbaijan says that there is no longer any basis or Armenia can not give any rational explanation as to why the agreements can not be implemented. It seems to me that they are checking the reaction of our political forces and the public to all this, and judging by the reaction, there is no particular resistance, not only among the society, but also among the politically active population.”
According to Poghosyan, there is something dangerous- the Prime Minister announced that Syunik is not cut off from Armenia; there is a dirt road․ “It is a very dangerous statement, and I can imagine what our reaction will be when we surrender Tigranashen, for example, because if in this case they say there is a dirt road, in that case, they will say that there is an alternative road connecting Zangakatun to Yeraskh or Yerevan that is paved. If they say there is a dirt road in Syunik’s case, then there will be a paved road in this case, and society will accept that we will not travel along the Yerevan-Yeraskh-Paruyr Sevak-Tigranashen-Zangakatun route, but before reaching Ararat, we will travel through Vedi, and from there we will travel to Zangakatun and continue along the paved road.”
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Nelly Babayan
