Speaking just hours before his fresh talks with Pashinian planned in Brussels, Aliyev said the so-called “Zangezur corridor” that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave via Armenian territory must have the same status as the existing Lachin corridor linking Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
“There are no customs checkpoints on the Lachin corridor right now,” Aliyev said after talks with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. “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,” he told reporters.
Pashinian was quick to reject Aliyev’s demands and accuse Baku of trying to “drive the issue of opening regional transport links into deadlock.”
“The Azerbaijani president’s attempts to draw parallels between the opening of regional transport routes and the Lachin corridor have nothing to do with discussions held and statements signed on that topic to date and are unacceptable to Armenia,” he wrote on Facebook. “I will make this position clear at the trilateral meeting slated for today.”
Pashinian referred to his planned talks with Aliyev hosted by European Council President Charles Michel. The latter held separate talks with the two leaders earlier on Tuesday.
Aliyev, Pashinian and Russian President Vladimir Putin reported major progress towards opening Armenian-Azerbaijani transport links after holding talks in the Russian city of Sochi on November 26. Putin said the Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani working group will formalize in the coming days “decisions which we agreed today.”
However, the group co-headed by deputy prime ministers of the three states announced no agreements after meeting in Moscow on December 1.
On December 6, Aliyev renewed his threats to forcibly open a land “corridor” to Nakhichevan. Yerevan condemned the threats and said they run counter to understandings reached at Sochi.
Visiting Yerevan on November 5, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk said the trilateral task force has agreed that Armenia and Azerbaijan will “retain sovereignty over roads passing through their territory.” The Russian Foreign Ministry also reported such an understanding at the time.