Armenia makes a last attempt not to open the Zangezur corridor

"All roads in Armenia are open to Azerbaijan."

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan wrote about this in an article published in the Armenian media the day before.

The article gives grounds to talk about some progress in the minds of the ruling team of Armenia. However, in general, the situation remains the same. Armenia is still not ready to understand the realities in which it cannot set conditions. Because of this misunderstanding, the country still remains isolated, and it is unlikely to get out of it, as long as its leader claims that "Armenia has never undertaken any written or oral obligations, has not agreed or even hinted that ensuring security on its territory, including international or Azerbaijani ones." passenger or cargo transportation should or can be delegated to another country."

Meanwhile, paragraph 9 of the Trilateral Statement dated November 10, 2020 states that "traffic control is carried out by the bodies of the Border Guard Service of the FSB of Russia." Pashinyan signed this document, and his attempts to claim otherwise offend our intelligence. It would be more acceptable if Pashinyan honestly said that he wants to replay this moment, as the geopolitical situation has changed and there will be no more Russian border guards on the eastern borders of Armenia. It would be more useful for him than to deny the realities and once again show himself as an untrustworthy politician. Denying the obvious is not the way out of the situation. 

Pashinyan is also wrong when he says that Armenia has no unilateral obligations. The opening of the Zangezur corridor is a unilateral commitment by Armenia. The opening of other communications will depend on how Yerevan handles this task. Until this issue is resolved, Azerbaijan will not open any roads, pipelines or power lines to its neighbors, which the Armenian prime minister mentioned.

Nikol Pashinyan cannot fail to understand that the issue of the road through Zangezur is a matter of principle and it is impossible to postpone it for later, for a vague perspective. By and large, Azerbaijan has been doing well without Armenian roads for more than 30 years and will be able to do without them for as long. The opening of communications for the occupying country, which has brought many evils and troubles to the Azerbaijani people, will be a gesture of goodwill and a huge concession in response to Yerevan's faithful implementation of paragraph 9 of the November 10 document.

Azerbaijan does not care which states' forces will ensure the safety of its goods, vehicles and citizens on Armenian territory. The main thing for him is that this security is guaranteed. Official Yerevan, however, is not able to do this on its own, even on the 40-kilometer route through Meghri. A lot can happen to Azerbaijani trains and trucks in these 20-30 minutes. This is Armenia with its nationalist madness and flourishing revanchism. Pashinyan knows this himself. He must know. Therefore, the following sentence in his article should be regarded as empty demagoguery and an attempt to talk about the solution of real issues. He's writing:

"... from the point of view of the readiness of the physical infrastructure, for example, trucks can enter the territory of the Republic of Armenia along the Lachin-Kornidzor section through the Kornidzor checkpoint, drive along our roads to the Armenian-Turkish border and enter Turkiye through the Margara checkpoint. It's the same in the opposite direction. The physical infrastructure necessary for such transit cargo transportation is ready right now, it remains to make a de jure decision. We are ready to make this decision if there is interest from Azerbaijan and Turkiye."

And "if there is a psychological difficulty for Azerbaijani drivers and trucks," the Armenian prime minister writes, then cargo transportation can be carried out by Turkish trucks or trucks from other countries. So the problem, according to Pashinyan, is in the psychological mood of our drivers, and not in the revanchist sentiments in his own country? Let him remember the pan-Armenian hysteria over the song "Karabakh" in Yerevan performed by Iranian citizens, or the burning of the Azerbaijani flag at the opening of the World Weightlifting Championships. We are not talking about the regular auto-dafs held over the state symbols of our country on various "festive" dates in Armenia. If Pashinyan is talking about security, let him try to solve these problems first and prove that he is able to stand behind his assurances. As for cargo transportation under Turkish or any other flag, this measure would be justified if Azerbaijan was in critical need of Armenian transit. And he, once again, does not need it. All that is needed is a short and unhindered passage to the NAR. It's all. 

By expressing frivolous thoughts, Nikol Pashinyan reinforces our doubts about whether he should be taken seriously at all. Thus, the Armenian Prime Minister once again recalls that in 2022, they say, he offered Azerbaijan to open three alternative exits to Nakhchivan to Zangezur, but Baku refused. At the same time, he forgets to mention that a reasoned response from Baku has already been given on these three exits. None of these proposals is suitable for efficient international freight transportation. And the Azerbaijani side does not need anything else from Armenia. This country will not be a tourist destination for Azerbaijani citizens for another fifty years. Three additional directions can be considered only after the commissioning of the Zangezur corridor. Armenia itself needs them, not Azerbaijan, but Baku could take some counter steps if Yerevan fulfills its obligations and stops engaging in demagoguery. Obviously, 40 kilometers of road through Meghri is completely incomparable with 300 kilometers of route through the whole of Armenia, proposed as an alternative exit from Kalbajar. The option of leaving the Gubadlinsky district is also stretched and inconvenient. The only shortcut to Nakhchivan from this point could be the Bichenek pass, but here the road would have to be laid at an altitude of 2346 meters above sea level, through mountainous terrain with difficult terrain. These conditions exclude serious cargo traffic.

President Ilham Aliyev spoke clearly and clearly about how Azerbaijan treats these "alternatives" in an interview with local TV channels. He called the routes proposed by Yerevan to the NAR unsuitable for use and advised the neighbors not to engage in manipulation in this matter. "Their proposed route from the main part of Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan is completely unusable. It will be impossible to use it throughout the year, as the weather conditions and terrain there are very harsh," President Ilham Aliyev said. The Head of State stated that the most correct option is to travel through the territory of Meghri, along the route that existed in Soviet times.

The Azerbaijani leader also stressed that "people and goods from Azerbaijan to Azerbaijan must pass without any check. Otherwise, Armenia will forever remain a dead end. If the route I mentioned is not opened, then we do not intend to open the border with Armenia in any other place."

The Armenian side should have no doubt that this will be the case. And I think there are no such doubts, because Yerevan has recently timidly spoken about its readiness to ensure the unhindered passage of sealed goods through Zangezur without stops. That is, without customs and border checks. And to save face, Pashinyan wants Azerbaijan to provide railway communication between Yeraskh and Meghri via Nakhchivan on the same terms. It should be noted that the situation with railways in Armenia is very sad. The mountainous terrain makes the implementation of railway projects either unrealistic or extremely expensive. And the highways leave much to be desired. You can only get from Yeraskh to Meghri by car in 6 hours. But that's not even the main thing. Pashinyan just wants to have at least some kind of argument with which to explain to his seething society why he is opening the way for Azerbaijan. With the failure of previous attempts to save face, this is his last hope.

As for Prime Minister Pashinyan's surprise that for some reason Azerbaijan does not require a corridor from Iran, but requires it from Armenia, we will be surprised. Baku has a completely different approach to Iran and Armenia, which is determined by the last 37 years of the history of our region. Armenia is still a long way from joining the ranks of other members of the international community for our country. She has a huge debt to Azerbaijan, and she should be incredibly happy that they want so little from her so far.