At the National Assembly, the main message of my presentation of the government’s program was the agenda of opening an era of peaceful development for the region and Armenia, and after that arose the already known situation, when Azerbaijan closed the main road leading to the southern parts of Syunik Province in the sections of Eyvazli and Chayzami. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said this on 27 August at the regular session of the Government.
According to him, this action contradicts the agreements reached in 2020: “I hope the situation will be resolved as soon as possible. Politically, it is unequivocal for me that this action was taken to strike at the peace agenda we have put forward, to discredit that agenda. Azerbaijan’s behavior shows that such incidents can happen again. Our services must be vigilant and attentive, but on the other hand we need strong nerves, and we must develop and advance our strategic line, the peace agenda. The creation of the situation regarding the roads of Syunik was not unpredictable for us, and during that period we have worked toward the formation of new infrastructure and will continue to work. However, the reopening of the road in the Eyvazli and Chayzami sections could become a very good symbol of regional stability. The Azerbaijani side insists that the created situation is linked to the incident that took place the previous day, when a serviceman of Azerbaijan’s border troops was stabbed. Our preliminary checks have shown that the Armenian side has no connection to the alleged incident. We are also ready for a joint investigation with the participation of representatives of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan.”
Referring to the issue of repairing roads of interstate and republican significance, Pashinyan said: “Our renovation programs, particularly in Syunik Province, will see the completion of the Tatev-Aghvani road renovation by the end of the year. We will also complete the road construction programs for the other designated sections, to make the uninterrupted connection of communities with the provincial center and roads of interstate and republican significance more qualitative.”
According to Pashinyan, there are certain positive public signals from Turkey: “We appreciate those signals and respond to positive signals with a positive signal.”
