No "corridor" through Armenia, maps being agreed on – Pashinyan

PanARMENIAN.Net - No "corridor" through Armenia, which would connect Azerbaijan to the Nakhijevan Autonomous Republic, is being discussed, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in an interview with the Public Television on Sunday, November 7.

"That topic had been closed still since November 9, 2020, when the declaration was signed, and I have referred to this issue numerous times. On the other hand, I must say that I highly appreciate the publication of the position of the Russian Federation on this issue, because, by and large, the Russian Federation has never had a different stance. It should be noted that the position of the Russian Federation has simply been made public, or rather not the position of only the Russian Federation, but also the position of Azerbaijan, because, in fact, it has been clearly stated that the parties have agreed on it in the trilateral working group," Pashinyan said.

"And I would like to draw your attention to the recent statement made by Turkey. They use the term "corridor", but they say that this "corridor" should be under the control of Armenia. In other words, we can actually state that regardless of wording, we are talking about the opening of regional communications, I must say that the Republic of Armenia is interested in the opening of regional communications, I have stated this publicly many times. Azerbaijan is also interested, Russia is also interested, the Islamic Republic of Iran is also interested, and Turkey is also interested. The task is to bring closer and homogenize perceptions over formulas."

Pashinyan also spoke about the legal grounds of the maps to be used in the demarcation and delimitation of the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The PM revealed that inconsistencies in maps are due to what he described a "tradition" in the Soviet Union, which meant that on the anniversary of the Communist Party, for instance, republics would donate territories to each other.

"Our preliminary study shows that this happened mainly on the principle of reciprocity. And now it is very important to understand those legal bases. And by saying a map we do not mean a drawing on paper. We mean its legal substantiation, because the map is meaningless without legal substantiation," he added.

According to him, all those legal bases and maps were agreed between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the 1920s and 1930s.

"We need to make sure – this is a practical issue – that the arrangements mentioned in texts are reflected on the maps," Pashinyan said.