Tuesday, June 16 2020 12:17

ArmInfo. Of course, we knew that the construction of the third road connecting Armenia with Artsakh might not be welcomed, and, of course, we realized that there would be attempts to give negative assessment to this process. However,  this separate opinion does not mean at all that we should have  abandoned the construction, a lawmaker of the parliamentary <My Step>  faction Mikael Zolyan expressed a similar opinion ArmInfo.

<Unfortunately, for a long time the main criterion for the foreign  policy of Armenia was the reaction of the centers of power. We need  to understand that our foreign policy should subordinate exclusively  to our own interests and priorities>, he said.

In this light, the negative response to certain actions of Armenia,  according to the parliamentarian, in no way means that Armenia should  not take these actions. Another question is the work necessary to  level the real impact of such responses. In this direction, Armenia,  of course, faces the need for its implementation.

To recall, on June 11, Marina Kaljurand, Co-Chair of the  Parliamentary Cooperation Committee of the European Parliament for  Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia, Traian Basescu, Permanent Rapporteur  for Armenia, and Zhelyana Zovko, European Parliament Standing  Rapporteur for Azerbaijan, made a joint statement regarding the  construction of a new highway linking Artsakh and Armenia. Expressing  concern in this regard, they emphasized that the decision to build  was taken bypassing the Azerbaijani authorities.

Zolyan stressed that this statement was distributed on behalf of only  a few European parliamentarians and in no way reflects the official  point of view of the European Parliament. In his opinion, in any  case, the very fact of this statement causes concern, given the  position of its authors in the parliamentary cooperation bodies of  EU-Armenia and EU-Azerbaijan. According to him, Yerevan's harsh  reaction to this statement is caused precisely by this fact.

<Of course, we must and will build as many roads as we need. And in  the response statement of the members of the EU-Armenia Parliamentary  Cooperation Committee, a clear reasoning is given for the reasons for  the inadmissibility of the Kalyurand-Besesku-Zovko statement. I don't  see any reason to repeat them, but these arguments are strong enough  and I think that our colleagues in the European Parliament will not  neglect them. Of course, our work is not limited to this, we work  through other communication channels as well, "the parliamentarian  concluded.

Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan reported on the project of  building a third highway between Armenia and Artsakh on June 5. The  latter, together with the Minister of Territorial Administration and  Infrastructures of Armenia Suren Papikyan, visited the south of the  Kashatagh region, from where it is planned to continue the route to  the southern part of the Syunik region of Armenia. After the Goris-  Stepanakert road and the Vardenis-Martakert highway, the  150-kilometer highway will become the third highway connecting  Armenia and Artsakh.