Yerevan does not discuss issue of Akna (Agdam)-Stepanakert  alternative route:  Ambassador-at-Large of Armenia

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.