News - Armenia PM: Any corridor that is not under our legislation is red line to us

Majority faction MP Arusyak Julhakyan asked Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for a comment, in the National Assembly today, regarding the statements made by Abdulkadir Uraloglu, the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure  of Turkey, regarding the "Zangezur corridor." In the coming months, the Turkish side will start the work of opening the "Zangezur Corridor.” Uraloglu had told this to reporters at the Istanbul forum on multimodal transportation and logistics of the Organization of Turkic States. He had noted that the Azerbaijani side continues the work in that regard. "We have overcome a certain path regarding the Zangazur [(Zangazur)] corridor issue, and I believe that Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Armenia will implement it in a short time," the Turkish official had added. In response to Julhakyan’s request, PM Pashinyan said as follows: "Are we [i.e. Armenia] against the reopening of the Horadiz-Meghri-Ordubad-Yeraskh railway? No, we are not against [it]; on the contrary, we are in favor of it, and we believe that it is a very important project for Armenia. Are we against the opening of transport routes in the region? We are not against [it], we are in favor, and we are in favor of communication between Azerbaijan and Turkey through the territory of Armenia, as well as Nakhichevan and western Azerbaijan regions of Azerbaijan through the territory of Armenia. Are we against regional [natural] gas pipelines, oil pipelines, power transmission lines passing through the territory of Armenia? No, we are not against[it]; on the contrary, we are interested in those projects. [But] all that should happen within the limits of Armenia's sovereignty and jurisdiction. Any statement questioning Armenia's sovereignty or jurisdiction in any way is unacceptable to us; it's a red line to us!" Pashinyan recalled that in the trilateral statement of November 9, 2020, a corridor with a certain limitation of sovereignty is planned only for the Lachin corridor. "A corridor through the territory of Armenia is not planned. Here it is important that we do not create confusion in the ears of the international community. In many cases, in Europe a ‘corridor’ is said to mean transport communication; this word is sensitive to us in the tripartite statement because of the Lachin corridor. In many cases, for example, some circles of Azerbaijan, understanding the sensitivity, use wrong contexts to form territorial aspirations towards Armenia. In that sense, it is not only unacceptable to us, but also a red line to us," he said. The premier announced that Armenia can start working on the opening of regional transport communications right away tomorrow. "For a long time, there is a draft being circulated on the agenda of the Armenian government to open three checkpoints on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border: one of them on the Nakhichevan border, two on the border with the western regions of Azerbaijan. Do they [i.e. Azerbaijanis] want a road? We want [it], too," emphasized Pashinyan.