Answers of the Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan to the questions of “Armenpress” news agency
Question: On May 27, the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev stated that there is no Nagorno-Karabakh, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is settled, and there is no OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship. What can you say on this occasion?
Answer: We can present a valid document signed by the President of Azerbaijan, which states that there is Nagorno-Karabakh. That is the trilateral statement of November 9, 2020. By signing that document, the President of Azerbaijan acknowledged the existence of Nagorno-Karabakh and this is an irreversible fact. We can point to the official statements made by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairing countries, in which they reaffirm their commitment as Co-Chairs. Over the past week alone the US and France delivered such statements.
The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship was highlighted in the joint statement by the Prime Minister of Armenia and the President of Russia issued on April 19 of this year. During the Summit of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Stockholm held in December 2021, dozens of Foreign Ministers stressed the exclusive role of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement process.
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The OSCE Minsk Group was not created by Azerbaijan, but by the international community, therefore, Azerbaijan can not disband it or consider its mission completed. The same international community today states that the OSCE Minsk Group exists, and, as I mentioned, it states that there is a Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that needs to be resolved. This is also stated in the above-mentioned statement by the Prime Minister of Armenia and the President of Russia. The US Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Armenia stated this quite recently, expressing the official position of the United States. Moreover, the same statement emphasizes that the issue of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh is on the agenda, and the right of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh to self-determination remains in force.
By the way, Armenia has never had and does not have territorial claims against Azerbaijan. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is a matter of rights and is perceived as such by the international community. That is evident from the meeting in Brussels. We have stated that the page of the war is turned for us, there is an issue that should be resolved through political and diplomatic means.
Question: Ilham Aliyev also stated that an agreement has been reached in Brussels on a corridor passing through Meghri which will connect Azerbaijan to Nakhijevan.
Answer: We have repeatedly stated the position of Armenia. Let us repeat again. The existence of any corridor inside the territory of Armenia is ruled out. This is not even up to discussion. Our discussions are exclusively about opening and unblocking roads, transport, and economic communications. As for the routes, we have said that before clarifying the routes, we must first agree on the legal regulations for the civilian and cargo passages of Azerbaijan through our territory and the civilian and cargo passages of Armenia through Azerbaijan (including Nakhichevan). However, it is obvious that one branch of the railway will pass through Meghri, Ordubad, Julfa, and Yeraskh. There is no agreement on the route of the highways at this moment.
