Tatul Hakobyan, coordinator of the “Ani” research center, said at the discussion organized by the Article 3 club on the topic “Armenia offers three routes to Azerbaijan: What is the reason for the creation of new checkpoints?”: “This project immediately followed the famous speech of the Prime Minister, where he said that Azerbaijan can use our territory right now.
But for that you need to have checkpoints and customs services. In other words, the Prime Minister has lowered the task and the National Security Service is implementing it.”
However, according to Tatul Hakobyan, this is one of the steps where there is no place to criticize because after this war, we have nothing else to do but rightly not to be left out of the regional processes. “I have to repeat what I keep repeating.
When Armenia won, it paid a price for being under blockade, and that price was somehow implemented. But when it was defeated, they needed to make sure that we would not be under blockade again.
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In that sense, it is extremely important that the territory of Armenia becomes accessible for all neighboring states,” he said and added, “Armenia has approached the red lines regarding the Meghri road. It has agreed to launch the restoration of the railway built in the 1930s and looted in the 2000s and the Yerevan-Julfa-Meghri-Horadiz-Baku-Makhachkala line.
Armenia has also approached another red line by agreeing that Azerbaijan should have a road in the opposite direction along the Araks River from the last point of the Azerbaijan-Iran-Armenia triangle, from the settlement of Aghdam, now under Azerbaijan’s control, to the Ordubadi region, and the latter will use that road. But that road should be accompanied by a Russian patrol and Azerbaijani goods and people should be met by Armenian customs officials.”
According to Tatul Hakobyan, this is not enough for Azerbaijan, because “Azerbaijan wants a zero-sum game and tries to squeeze everything possible. And when we talk about the ‘not an inch of land’ mentality now, it is no longer relevant in Armenia, it has now moved to Azerbaijan at the state level.”
Ashot HAKOBYAN
