Ahead of talks mediated by the President of the European Council Charles Michel in Brussels, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Tuesday slammed Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s latest demands on his so-called “Zangezur Corridor”—a road linking Azerbaijan proper with Nakhichevan.
While meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg hours before scheduled talks with Pashinyan, Aliyev said that the so-called “Zangezur Corrdior” must have the same status as the Lachin corridor that connects Armenia with Artsakh.
“There are no customs checkpoints on the Lachin corridor right now,” Aliyev said. “The same must also be the case on the Zangezur corridor.”
“If Armenia insists on setting up customs checkpoints to control the movement of goods and people through the Zangezur corridor, then we will insist on the same conditions for the Lachin corridor,” Alyev told reporters after his meeting with Stoltenberg.
Pashinyan was quick to respond and accused Azerbaijan of trying to deadlocking negotiations for the opening of transit routes between the two countries.
“The attempts by the President of Azerbaijan to make parallels between the opening of regional communications with the Lachin corridor have nothing to do with the discussions and statements signed on this topic so far. It is unacceptable for Armenia,” said Pashinyan in a Facebook post.
“I will clearly express this position during the trilateral meeting scheduled for today,” Pashinyan stated.
Michel, the President of the European Council, met with Pashinyan and Aliyev separately ahead of a meeting he will mediate between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Last month Michel announced that he will mediate the meeting on the sidelines of the EU’s Eastern Partnership summit, which will kick of Wednesday.
According to Pashinyan’s press office, he and Michel discussed the need to strengthen dialogue between Yerevan and Baku and expressed hope that Tuesday’s meeting with Aliyev would contribute to stability in the region.
“The EU’s support for the normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia was underlined at the meeting. Issues related to the demarcation and delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border were discussed at the meeting. The sides exchanged views on the opening of communications and humanitarian issues,” Aliyev said in a statement issued by his office after his meeting with Michel.
