RA Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, Ararat Mirzoyan, assures that Armenia has never stopped negotiations to establish peaceful relations with Azerbaijan. The minister emphasizes that Armenia takes a constructive and conscientious approach to the negotiation process, as our ultimate goal is to establish security and peace in the region.

In an interview with ARMENPRESS, the RA Foreign Minister also referred to the situation created by Azerbaijan's closure of the Lachin Corridor, the false and conflicting statements of the Azerbaijani side regarding the situation, the process of opening regional communications, and other topics.

- What developments are there in terms of the process of regulating Armenia-Azerbaijan relations? There are opinions that the process has reached a dead end.

- Armenia has never stopped the negotiations on the treaty establishing peaceful relations with Azerbaijan. Regardless of the Azerbaijani illegal actions in the Lachin Corridor and the postponement of the Moscow meeting, we conveyed our new proposals and justifications for the draft agreement to the Azerbaijani side more than a month ago, but we have not yet received a response. So the ball is now in Azerbaijan's court.

As in the past, Armenia is taking a constructive and conscientious approach to the negotiation process, as our ultimate goal is to establish security and peace in the region. We are also listening to the calls of the international community and are ready to negotiate more intensively.

- Including the opening of the Lachin Corridor?

- We have said many times that in 2020 Article 6 of the tripartite statement of November 9, which regulates issues related to the Lachin Corridor, does not provide for any function of Armenia related to ensuring the uninterrupted operation of the corridor. Ensuring the normal operation of the corridor is the responsibility of the peacekeeping troops of Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation. And the issues related to the internal life of Nagorno-Karabakh are within the scope of resolution of the NK authorities, and the RA authorities have no function here either.

Let me just add that the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh caused by the blocking of the Lachin Corridor is already approaching a humanitarian disaster and if the corridor is not immediately reopened, there is an extreme need for the humanitarian intervention of the international community, including, first of all, the United Nations.

- Recently, Azerbaijan has started justifying the closure of the Lachin Corridor with the alleged transportation of ammunition, particularly mines, from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh. And Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced in his press conference that the Azerbaijani side has given them data on this, which they are studying.

- I have to note that the Azerbaijani side seems to be confused in its conversation about the blocking of the Lachin Corridor. Azerbaijan often insists that the corridor is not closed, then says that the corridor is blocked for environmental reasons, and when it was announced that the mine in question had ceased operations, people posing as eco-activists demanded inspections of Red Cross vehicles and humanitarian cargo passing through the corridor. , then, accompanied by Russian peacekeepers, they stormed into the home, the transport of children returning to Nagorno Karabakh, and terrorized the children. Now, these actions are justified by the fictitious transfer of mines.

I would like to emphasize once again that the Republic of Armenia carried out mining only in the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia and did so purely for self-defense purposes, as it was subjected to military aggression by Azerbaijan in May 2021, in November 2021 and in September 2022. At present, too, the danger of new military aggression against the sovereign territory of RA remains high.

The mines that the Azerbaijani side displays for propaganda purposes and declares that they will be destroyed in 2021. are in production and were recently moved from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh through the Lachin Corridor, in fact, they appeared near Azerbaijan in 2021-2022. From the territory of Armenia was occupied as a result of the Azerbaijani aggression against the Republic of Armenia.

- There is another controversy related to the Lachin Corridor. The authorities of Azerbaijan declare that the corridor is open, and the authorities of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh declare that the corridor is closed. This may confuse the international community.

- This is also the reason why we propose to send a fact-finding group of the UN or OSCE or any other international organization to Lachine Corridor and we will continue to promote this idea.

- President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev announced that Yerevan rejected the proposal to create a tripartite format of Armenia-Georgia-Azerbaijan. How would you comment on that?

- Armenia has a great interest in the development of tripartite dialogue between the countries of the South Caucasus. We consider the possible Tbilisi platform in the domain of regional trilateral discussions, not Armenia-Azerbaijan bilateral meetings. Now the idea of a meeting between the Prime Ministers of Armenia and Georgia and the President of Azerbaijan is circulating.

The Armenian side has expressed readiness and is still ready for such a meeting, but agrees that such a meeting does not seem particularly effective and promising when it is not possible to agree on even a simple joint statement expressing commitment to the elimination of hate speech and hostility.

- What can you say about the process of opening regional communications? Recently, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey also expressed hope that Armenia will be involved in the East-West regional mechanisms, cooperating with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Georgia.

- Armenia is definitely interested in the complete unblocking of transport and economic infrastructures in the region by 2020. November 9 and 2021 in accordance with the principles laid down in the tripartite declarations of January 11, and in being part of larger transport projects. You are probably aware that the "Armenian Intersection" project was put forward by the RA government by combining north-south and east-west mechanisms.

Our proposals for the opening of regional communications are valid and we can do it at any time, within the framework of the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the countries over the roads and the observance of national legislation. Basically, the only and main obstacle here is the groundless demand for the extraterritorial corridor put forward by Azerbaijan.

Photo: RA MFA press service