Thursday, March 30 2023 12:16

ArmInfo. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on March 30 at a government meeting commented on the information about the advancement of Azerbaijani troops, noting that there were no positional changes.

As the Armenian prime minister pointed out, as a result of an agreement between the authorities of Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh, the route of the Lachin corridor in August 2022 changed, a new road was put into operation.

"But since the road connecting the Lachin corridor and the Republic of Armenia was not completely ready, a temporary route was used that passed through the territory of Armenia in Kornidzor, then through the territory of Azerbaijan and then again through the territory of Armenia. According to the current agreement, this route was to operate until April 1, 2023>, Pashinyan said.

According to him, yesterday, the Armenian side informed the Azerbaijani side that, according to the agreement, after the Kornidzor bridge, the road will run only through the territory of Armenia, and the RA border troops will take over the protection of the Armenian state border in this section.

<The border troops will be deployed along the RA border at the positions where the units of the Ministry of Defense were previously deployed. A little while ago, the Azerbaijani media spread information, according to which they are trying to present what happened as another blockbuster. This approach is at least unconstructive. I repeat that there were no positional changes, with the exception of the fact that we are going to do border control by the border service forces. I hope that this process will be without provocations>, Pashinyan said.

In this regard, the Prime Minister once again confirmed the RA government's commitment to the peace agenda. He expressed hope that in the future there will be concrete progress in the Stepanakert-Baku and Armenia-Azerbaijan formats, emphasizing the importance of applying international mechanisms and guarantees in this process.

Earlier, tonight, the Azerbaijani armed forces blocked the Goris-Stepanakert highway between Aghavno and Tegh villages.  The new Tegh-Kornidzor unpaved road of Syunik province bypassing the closed road is already ready, which connects to the new Kornidzor-Hin Shen road put into operation in August 2022 ("Berdzor (Lachin) Corridor").  Asphalting works of the Tegh-Kornidzor road are in progress by the Republic of Armenia," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Artsakh noted. At the same time, the Ministry of Internal Affairs that the Tegh-Kornidzor unpaved road is passable and, taking into account the ongoing blockade of Artsakh, it is possible to carry out humanitarian supplies to Artsakh by Russian peacekeepers and the International Committee of the Red Cross. By the way, that road, on the border of the Artsakh Republic, near the bridge on the River Hakari, is controlled by Russian peacekeeping troops.