ArmInfo. Yerevan is not discussing the issue of the Akna (Agdam)-Stepanakert alternative route, since its mandate concerns only negotiations on the Lachin corridor, Armenian Ambassador-at-Large Edmon Marukyan said on the air of the Public Television.
According to Marukyan, this is due to the fact that official Yerevan "signed a document" concerning the Lachin corridor and calling on Azerbaijan to ensure free and safe movement along it in accordance with the Tripartite Statement of November 9, 2020.
Thus, Armenia cannot accept or reject Azerbaijan's proposal for an alternative route through Aghdam, such a conversation can only be with the authorities of Nagorno- Karabakh, he explained.
As the diplomat pointed out, in addition, there can be many routes, but they cannot be considered as "roads if they are not the result of negotiations, since the issue is not only in the transportation of food, but also in maintaining communication with Armenia."
The Ambassador-at-Large of Armenia does not rule out the prospect of reaching an agreement with Baku on the reopening of the Lachin corridor through the mediation of the Russian side, pointing out that nothing is ruled out in big politics.
In early August, the Russian Kommersant newspaper published an article titled "Artsakh against Karabakh", citing an unnamed source in Russian government agencies, has informed about a proposal from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to first open the road through Aghdam and then resume the movement through the Lachin Corridor.
<Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov proposed an option that both the Azerbaijani side and the people of Karabakh initially agreed to. Its essence was that the road through Aghdam was opened and the delivery of everything needed through the ICRC began along it. And exactly one day after the start of traffic in this place, according to Moscow's proposal, traffic in the Lachin corridor was also resumed. "This option was in a high degree of readiness", says the source of Kommersant. But, according to him, Stepanakert then put forward the condition that Lachin be opened not in 24 hours, but immediately, then the NKR stated that goods of Azerbaijani origin should not be delivered through Aghdam, then there was a scandal with Vagif Khachatryan, whose immediate release was demanded by the NKR authorities. As a result, a compromise did not work out>, the article said. At the same time, it was emphasized that "the interlocutor from the Russian government agencies believes that the road through Agdam will eventually be opened."
The Artsakh Foreign Ministry has stated that the talks about the opening of the Aghdamov road are an attempt to legitimize the violations of the obligations undertaken by Baku. <In this context, any initiatives linking the use of the Lachin corridor, moreover, in an extremely limited mode, with other issues and alternative routes, including through Aghdam, are in fact an attempt to legitimize the violation by Azerbaijan of its international obligations regarding the Lachin corridor and and revise the Tripartite Statement of November 9, 2020 signed by the President of this country.
Such an approach, stubbornly proposed by Azerbaijan, deliberately infringes on the rights and dignity of the people of Artsakh and is contrary to the norms of international humanitarian law and international human rights law>, the Foreign Ministry commented, recalling that on February 28, 2023, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia in Baku confirmed that the establishment of checkpoints in the Lachin corridor is not envisaged by the Tripartite Statement.