According to Azerbaijani media, on December 6, 2021, during a meeting with residents of the village of Gonagkend in the Guba region, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev made demands addressed to Armenia to accept Azerbaijan’s conditions and to announce a specific timeframe for the opening of the so-called “Zangezur corridor.” The Azerbaijani President also accused the Republic of Armenia of displaying insincere approaches regarding roads and communications.
In connection with the aforementioned statements, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia deems it necessary to emphasize.
1. The agreements of the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation regarding roads and communications are recorded in the statements of November 9, 2020, January 11, 2021 and November 26, 2021. In those statements, there is no obligation, condition or agreement on the part of the Republic of Armenia to provide Azerbaijan with a corridor, or a path of corridor logic.
2. The November 9, 2020 Trilateral statement records the parties’ agreement to unblock all economic and transport ties in the region. The same statement records that the Republic of Armenia guarantees the security of transport communication between the western regions of Azerbaijan and the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic.
3. By the statement of January 11, 2021, for the purpose of implementing point 9 of the November 9, 2020 statement on unblocking all economic and transport ties in the region, a trilateral working group was created under the joint chairmanship of the deputy prime ministers of the Republic of Armenia, the Russian Federation and the Republic of Azerbaijan.
4. Point 3 of the January 11, 2021 statement stipulated that, for the purpose of implementing the main directions of activity, the co-chairs of the Working Group would approve the composition of expert subgroups in those areas, which would include representatives of the Parties’ competent bodies and officials of organizations.
5. Point 4 of the January 11, 2021 statement stipulated that the Working Group would submit for approval at the highest level by the Parties a list and schedule of measures for the restoration and construction of new transport infrastructure objects necessary for the organization, implementation and security assurance of international transport carried out through the territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Armenia, likewise for transport carried out by the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Armenia which requires crossing the territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Armenia.
6. During its first session convened on January 30, 2021, the trilateral working group decided to create two expert subgroups, one on railway, automobile and combined transport, and the other on the provision of transport, including security, border, customs, sanitary, veterinary, phytosanitary and other types of control.
7. The Republic of Armenia has repeatedly declared at the highest level that it is interested in unblocking all transport and economic ties in the region, with the understanding that the western regions of Azerbaijan receive automobile and railway connection through the territory of Armenia with the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan (and thus also with Turkey), while Armenia receives automobile connection through the territory of Azerbaijan with the Russian Federation and railway connection with the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
8. Alexey Overchuk, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation and co-chair of the trilateral working group, during a meeting with Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan on November 5, 2021, stated that the search for solutions in the trilateral working group is based on the following principles: the sovereignty of the countries through whose territories those roads pass is preserved over the roads, and that the types of control at border crossings will be carried out on the principle of reciprocity. Earlier, Alexey Overchuk had stated that the issue of a corridor is not being discussed in the trilateral working group.
9. On the occasion of the anniversary of the signing of the November 9, 2020 trilateral statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation circulated an informational document in which it was clearly recorded that all participants of the Trilateral Working Group had agreed that all unblocked and newly created transport routes would operate with respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the countries through whose territories they pass.
10. On November 26, 2021, a meeting of Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev took place in Sochi, Russian Federation, during which the principles mentioned in point 8 were reaffirmed.
Based on the aforementioned circumstances, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia declares.
a) The statements of the President of Azerbaijan, by their content, have no connection with the statements of November 9, January 11 and November 26, contradict the agreements reached in the Trilateral Working Group and in Sochi, pursue destructive and provocative aims, and contain a threat to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Republic of Armenia,
b) The Republic of Armenia remains committed to all its aforementioned commitments and is ready for the speedy implementation of the aforementioned agreements,
c) The list and schedule of measures for the implementation of the process of restoration and opening of the region’s communications — highways and railways — is being discussed within the framework of the Trilateral Working Group, whose work is being hindered by Azerbaijan’s provocative rhetoric.
The Republic of Armenia draws the attention of its main security partner, the Russian Federation, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the UN Security Council, the co-chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Group and the entire international community to the fact that official Baku continues to voice clear threats of the use of force through bellicose statements against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia, violating the fundamental principles of international law, including the UN Charter, and endangering regional and global security.
The Republic of Armenia calls on the Republic of Azerbaijan to refrain from provocative rhetoric and actions and not to hinder the implementation of the agreements regarding the unblocking of all economic and transport ties in the region.
