Hikmet Hajiyev’s slip of the tongue – “Zangezur corridor” in exchange of a land route for Armenia towards Russia

In his article published in Washington Times, Head of the Foreign Policy Department of the Staff of the President of Azerbaijan Hikmet Hajiyev sounded covert blackmail against Armenia in a tone that is characteristic of the Azerbaijanis.

“The reopening of the Zangazur Corridor — a rail and road linking Azerbaijan to Armenia — will open an economic opportunity for both our countries and the wider region,” Trend reported.

“The isolation of Azerbaijan’s exclave Nakhchivan — accessible through Armenia — will end. Armenia’s capital Yerevan can be connected via Azerbaijan by land with Moscow and other capitals. In this regionwide transformational process we hope the Minsk Group — the mediation body established in 1992 under the co-chairmanship of France, Russia, and the United States — should not be of the past, but part of the future,” Hajiyev said.

The Azerbaijani official restated the provisions of the trilateral statement concerning the opening of all links in the region in a distorted way. It seems as though a high-ranking official like Hajiyev knows the difference between ‘communication’ and ‘corridor’. Nevertheless, Hajiyev is trying to be clever by saying the “Zangezur corridor” is opposite to the Azerbaijani links and by presenting the commitments stipulated in the statement as a wide and extravagant gesture of Baku. If we speak with Hajiyev’s terminology, Azerbaijan has to give Armenia, say, the “Tovuz corridor” in the direction of Russia. Unquestionably, such a “corridor” will serve for the development of ties in the region.