Azerbaijan clarified its position on the proposal of the Armenian side to open several checkpoints.
Yerevan stated its intention to open three checkpoints on the border with Azerbaijan. After prolonged silence, Baku responded to this generous proposal.
“Armenia’s proposals to create three checkpoints on the border with Azerbaijan is an imitation of implementing the provisions of the trilateral statement of November 10, 2020,” Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev said.
According to him, the roads emanating from the points proposed by Yerevan are not suitable in terms of topography and climatic conditions for transport communication with Nakhchivan and international transit traffic for most of the year.
“In addition, the checkpoints should be opened by agreement of the parties, symmetrically. However, Armenia has not conducted any coordination with Azerbaijan,” the Azerbaijani official said.
In Mustafayev’s view, Armenia’s proposal is formal to evade the Nov. 10, 2020 agreement to establish communications between western Azerbaijan and Armenia.
In violation of Point 9 of the trilateral statement, Armenia has never presented the best option for transport communication between the western regions of Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan, Mustafayev said.
Meanwhile, the appeals to “coordination of the parties” look very strange, taking into account that a couple of months ago, it was Azerbaijan itself without any coordination – at least the public knows nothing about them – that demanded and achieved to change the route of Berdzor-Lachin corridor. Even more interesting is the reference to point 9 of the statement. “In violation of point 9 of the trilateral statement, Armenia has never presented the best option for transport communication between the western regions of Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan,” Mustafayev states. In fact, the paragraph reads as follows: “All economic and transport connections in the region are unblocked. The Republic of Armenia guarantees the security of transport communication between the western regions of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic in order to organize the unimpeded movement of citizens, vehicles and cargoes in both directions. The transport communication is controlled by the border service bodies of the Federal Security Service of Russia”. The Azerbaijani official “slightly adjusted” the document, changing the word “freely” into “optimally,” with an obvious allusion to the notorious “Zangezur corridor.” There is no mention of the “corridor” or the “optimal” route in the document.