Due to Yerevan`s failed diplomacy, the so-called Zangezur corridor  issue is still relevant - Robert Kocharyan

ArmInfo.  The loss of Nagorno-Karabakh is mainly due to the fact that Armenia refused to implement the 9th point of the Trilateral Statement of November 9, 2020, and began to interpret it differently. This is the opinion of  the second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan.

In an interview with Channel 5, Kocharyan noted that at the last  press conference, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had to touch on the  topic of outsourcing the Syunik road after the publication of the  Carnegie Foundation and the statements of the American ambassador  about leasing a 42 km road through Syunik for about 100 years,  admitting that the issue is a very specific topic and has been on the  negotiating table for some time.

"Here, of course, there is an obvious absurdity - why the Syunik  road, or the so-called Zangezur corridor, is still a topic of  discussion on the negotiating table. I have information that this  road, at the request of Azerbaijan, was included in the 9th point of  the statement of November 9 - to create symmetry with the Lachin  corridor. Lachin was a five-kilometer corridor over which Azerbaijan  had no control, and the asymmetric version of this is the road  connecting Azerbaijan with Nakhchivan. Now Karabakh does not exist,  the Lachin corridor does not exist, but the topic of this road  continues to exist on its own. The topic of the so-called Zangezur  corridor began to live its own life> despite the fact that it had a  direct connection with Nagorno-Karabakh, he noted.

"The loss of Karabakh is mainly due to the fact that Armenia refused  to implement the 9th point, began to interpret it, like, we  understand it differently. It is quite natural that in Azerbaijan  they say: "Do you take us for fools? You lost the war, there is only  one point in this statement that meets the interests of Azerbaijan,  and you reject it. This was followed by the closure of the Lachin  corridor and the loss of Karabakh. Putting all this aside and leading  the negotiations to the point where the so-called Zangezur corridor  continues to exist as a separate issue is absurd. This is simply a  masterpiece of diplomatic failure," Kocharyan said.

The second president of the Republic of Armenia is convinced that  after the loss of Karabakh, this topic should no longer exist: "When  this topic continues to exist on its own, it means that you make your  territory controversial - other states are discussing the creation of  a corridor through your territory. This is the situation when you are  not at the negotiating table, but on the geopolitical menu." Touching  on the benefits that this road can bring to Armenia, which some are  trying to convince us of, Robert Kocharyan said: "A couple of days  ago, a famous pianist (referring to the President of Armenia Vahagn  Khachaturyan - ed.) said that "the gates of Syunik must be opened."  And a few days ago, the President of Turkey said that 2.8 billion  dollars have been allocated for the construction of the  Kars-Igdir-Nakhichevan railway. This means that the proposed road  will not go through Yeraskh and the territory of Armenia to Turkey,  but from Nakhichevan directly to Turkey. And this route will have  nothing to do with the opening of roads. It will be a corridor  Turkiye-Azerbaijan-Central Asian countries. Every reasonable person  should take a map in their hands, look at it and ask themselves, what  is our benefit? I have no doubt that it will be a corridor."

According to him, if the state cannot delegate, outsource its  function to a private company. And it is wrong to give the example of  the international airport in Yerevan, which is under  concession management, he believes. - the  second president of the Republic of Armenia asks.