Yerevan comments on Azerbaijani presidential rep`s statement on Syunik corridor

ArmInfo. The Armenian Foreign Ministry confirmed the words of the Special Representative of the President of Azerbaijan Elchin Amirbekov about the exclusion of the issue of the extraterritorial transport route through the Armenian Syunik from the draft peace agreement between Baku and Yerevan.

Referring to Amirbekov's statements, the press secretary of the Armenian Foreign Ministry Ani Badalyan told the Armenian media that by mutual agreement it was decided to remove this point from the peace agreement and postpone the discussion to a later stage.

"Thanks to this agreement, the unblocking of communications continues to be an important part of the vision of peace and economic development of the Republic of Armenia, reflected in the "Crossroads of Peace" program, based on sovereignty, jurisdiction, reciprocity and equality," she noted.

Speaking to RFE/Radio Liberty the day before, a spokesman for the Azerbaijani president said that one of the factors that is facilitating the talks at the moment is that both sides have agreed to resolve the most contentious of the remaining issues. Namely, how to organize transport routes that will connect the rest of Azerbaijan with its exclave of Nakhichevan, that is, the "corridor" issue.

"By mutual agreement, we decided to exclude this point from the peace agreement and postpone it [discussion] to a later stage... So, we decided to exclude it from the text, but we can still reflect in the text the fact that this is one of the issues that the countries can return to in the future to discuss and reach a common agreement," he said.

He also emphasized Baku's demand that Armenia change the country's main law.

The Meghri route is a project for a transport route about 40 km long through the territory of the Syunik region of Armenia, which would provide transport links between the western regions of Azerbaijan and its exclave, the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic. The opening of transport routes in the region was envisaged by agreements.