Azerbaijan Seeks Grounds to Close the Lachin Corridor: Pashinyan

“The President of Azerbaijan is trying to create grounds for closing the Lachin Corridor under the pretext of Armenia allegedly failing to fulfill its obligations, thereby blockading the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh and subjecting them to genocide and dispossession,” said Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during a cabinet meeting held earlier today.

Pashinyan reminded that the provisions of the trilateral statement from November 9, 2020, leave no room for such parallels, which is substantiated by several facts. “In points 3 and 6 of the trilateral statement concerning the Lachin Corridor, it is expressly stated ‘Lachin Corridor,’ which means that the Lachin Corridor is directly named as such.”

“Furthermore, point 9 of the same statement does not mention either the term ‘corridor’ or any reference to the territory of the Republic of Armenia or any place names. According to point 6 of the trilateral statement, the Lachin Corridor is not only a road or transportation route but also an area 5 kilometers wide, which is a security zone. There is no mention of such an area in point 9, which only discusses communication,” he added.

Pashinyan further noted that point 9 of the trilateral statement states that the control over the transport communication between the western regions of Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic is carried out by the Federal Security Service border service of the Russian Federation. “This issue is further clarified in point 3 of the decree No. 695 of the President of the Russian Federation dated November 10, 2020, which states: ‘The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation shall exercise control over ensuring transport communication between the western regions of Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic by the Republic of Armenia for the unobstructed movement of citizens, goods, and vehicles.’”

This means that there is no talk of control over any of our sovereign territories or the alienation of our sovereign functions; it is solely about the control of the fulfillment of agreements that can only be carried out by the Russian Federal Security Service border service,” he emphasized.

Pashinyan also added that the accusations against Armenia of violating point 9 of the November 9 statement are baseless. “Armenia has only one obligation—to ensure transport communication between the western regions of Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, and the November 9 statement does not mention any specific routes.”