Armenia Calls Launch Of Talks On Regulation Of Lachin Corridor With Baku 'Unacceptable'

Yerevan believes talks with Baku on the regulation of the Lachin corridor, the only road linking Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh, are unacceptable as the existing trilateral agreements of November 2020 have already settled the issue, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said Wednesday

YEREVAN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd February, 2023) Yerevan believes talks with Baku on the regulation of the Lachin corridor, the only road linking Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh, are unacceptable as the existing trilateral agreements of November 2020 have already settled the issue, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said Wednesday.

On February 18, after the trilateral meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Munich, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev told journalists that Baku had proposed establishing checkpoints at both ends of the Zangezur corridor � negotiated between Yerevan and Baku to link the western regions of Azerbaijan and the Autonomous Republic of Nakhichevan � and at the border between the Lachin district and Armenia.

"A similar idea was voiced � to establish checkpoints on the border of Armenia and in the area where the Lachin corridor begins. But our answer is unequivocal and was already announced soon after the blockade of the Lachin corridor: the regulation of the Lachin corridor is negotiated and secured by signatures, including those of the Azerbaijani president. I am talking about the document of November 9, 2020. The resumption of negotiations on regulation of the Lachin corridor, by force or threat of force is unacceptable for us and cannot be an acceptable solution," Mirzoyan said at a joint press conference with Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn.

Mirzoyan noted that "there is an expectation of Azerbaijan" to open the Lachin corridor in exchange for a similar corridor.

However, according to the Armenian minister, even before the escalation of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh in the fall of 2020, the Lachin corridor was treated as a humanitarian corridor throughout the negotiation process, given that "the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh are surrounded by Azerbaijan and it is the only road linking them to Armenia and the world."

"That is, the corridor has been given importance since the start. As for unblocking the transport communications in the region, our position remains the same and constructive. We can quickly unblock them if we make sure that all communications, including railroads, function within the sovereignty of the countries where they pass," Mirzoyan added.

Since December 12, the Lachin corridor, which runs through the Lachin district of Azerbaijan to link Armenia with Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, has been blocked by a group of people from Azerbaijan described by Baku as environmental activists protesting alleged Armenian illegal mining in the area.

Pashinyan has repeatedly said that the corridor's blockade violates the ceasefire declaration brokered by Russia between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2020. The document delegated control of the Lachin corridor to Russian peacekeepers deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh. In late December 2022, Pashinyan alleged that the peacekeepers did not fulfill their obligations, a claim that was dismissed by Moscow.