Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham met in Prague together with French President Emmanuel Macron and the European Union’s top official, Charles Michel. They apparently agreed on some of the key parameters of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty. But they reported on progress on the transport links which would also be part of a comprehensive settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
“In Prague I reconfirmed again our proposal on unblocking of all regional communications,” Pashinian tweeted later in the morning. “Azerbaijan again did not respond positively.”
“I reiterate, Armenia is ready for unblocking of all regional communications with full respect of our sovereignty and legislation,” he said.
Speaking after the first part of the Prague talks late on Thursday, Aliyev said Yerevan is still not sharing with Baku “the route of an automobile road” that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave through Armenia’s Syunik province.
“It’s not clear why they are not agreeing to give us passage to Nakhichevan,” he told Azerbaijani reporters. “This is certainly a blatant violation of their obligations, but we remain patient and show restraint. I am sure that we will achieve that as well. The sooner, the better.”
Armenia and Azerbaijan are to reopen their border to commercial and passenger traffic under the terms of a Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped their six-week war for Nagorno-Karabakh in November 2020.
Aliyev has repeatedly claimed before that the deal calls for a permanent land corridor for Nakhichevan. He said last December that passage through the “Zangezur corridor” must be exempt from Armenian border controls.
Yerevan rejected his demands. It maintains that the agreement brokered by Russian President Vladimir Putin envisages conventional transport links, rather than an “exterritorial corridor.”
The issue was on the agenda of the October 2 talks in Geneva between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers. An Armenian Foreign Ministry statement on the talks spoke of “mutual understanding on unblocking regional transport routes under the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the countries.” It did not elaborate.