Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan answered Radar Armenia’s question.
Question. – The President of Azerbaijan repeated the corridor idea in his last interview. There have been many comments on that issue from all sides, including Russian and Western… You, the Prime Minister, have spoken to me several times. Can you present what Azerbaijan requires and what kind of regime it envisions at the procedural and operational level when it says that people and cargo crossing from Zangelan to Nakhichevan should not be subject to inspection? How does Azerbaijan justify this, and what kind of response does this justification receive from the mediators, particularly the USA and the Russian Federation? Lavrov, for example, says that this road is not a corridor. If there is no inspection, then how will these people and goods pass through the territory of Armenia? According to Azerbaijan’s expectations, how will the process be organized in practice?
Mirzoyan informed us that in the negotiations with Azerbaijan, they reached an agreement that the infrastructure should be unblocked within the framework of the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the countries, according to the principles of equality and reciprocity. According to him, Azerbaijan is not against those principles. “However, as the President of Azerbaijan said in the last interview, they demand that Azerbaijani goods and passengers can cross the Armenian border and reach Nakhichevan from Azerbaijan and vice versa without any customs administration, without border crossing passport control. Thirdly, this road and infrastructure must be under the armed control of the Russian border guards.
All three demands imply a violation of RA sovereignty. We cannot consider it acceptable for anyone, a citizen of any country, to cross the border without border crossing administration. Of course, we are ready to simplify the procedures. In the modern world, digital technologies can provide quite innovative and effective solutions, and some solutions can be discussed. But ideologically, it is unacceptable for us that someone crosses the RA border, passes through the territory, and, on the other hand, leaves the RA border, and the relevant authorities of the RA need to be informed appropriately—the same is true of the second component, customs administration, which refers to cargo. We are ready to discuss how this or that relevant payment should be made or how much the payment should be. There may be some mutual compromise solutions, but ideologically, for the cargo to cross the territory of the Republic of Armenia, pass through the territory of the Republic of Armenia, and leave without customs administration, it cannot be. This is precisely the corridor logic we have always said is unacceptable. The third component is security. Even the statement of November 9, which could be more effective, does not contain any point or definition that the security of this infrastructure should be provided by any third-party force, particularly the Russian border guards. On the contrary, it is clearly and directly stated that RA provides security and infrastructure.”
The minister noted that Armenia is ready to guarantee the safety of infrastructure in that area and other areas of the country.
