“In order to avoid speculation, I must remind you that the Azerbaijani checkpoint is not in the territory of Armenia. It is in the Eyvazli section,” said Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan before moving on to the agenda of the government session on Thursday. “Another question may arise – is it not possible to negotiate that no border control was exercised over the citizens and goods of the Republic of Armenia on that route? It was possible, but the price would be the corridor logic, which is unacceptable for us,” Pashinyan said.
According to him, Armenia’s position on regional communication has always been that they should be reopened without any extraterritorial context and appropriate customs and passport control. “That is, we have never discussed and will not discuss any corridor logic. This is fixed in the trilateral Armenia-Russia-Azerbaijan format of the Deputy Prime Ministers, and it is important to note that in recent weeks, this logic and agreement has also been publicly confirmed by Russia. And it is in this context, perhaps, that Azerbaijan made yesterday’s decision.
To clarify, Armenia continues to adhere to the provisions of the statements of November 9, 2020 and January 11, 2021, in particular regarding the unblocking of all transport and economic infrastructure in the region. We are interested in unblocking all the infrastructures and hope to reach concrete solutions in the near future.
Returning to the Goris-Kapan road section, I would like to emphasize that the Republic of Armenia will also install customs and passport control points at the crossing points, if necessary. During this crucial time, we need composure and strong nerves. A new environment is being formed around Armenia and we must do everything to make that environment as appropriate as possible to our long-term strategic interests, and we are going that way.”
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Nelly Babayan
