YEREVAN. Feb 22 (Interfax) - Russia's stance on unblocking transport links in the South Caucasus region does not fit into the logic of extraterritorial corridors, Russian Ambassador to Armenia Sergei Kopyrkin said.
"The Russian position on this issue has been clearly expressed many times in public by our co-chair of the commission [on unblocking transport links and border delimitation between Armenia and Azerbaijan], Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk, that there is no corridor logic," Kopyrkin told the Armenian news website 24news.am.
Speaking about Russian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Mikhail Bocharnikov's statement published in Azerbaijani media, according to which the project of the Zangezur corridor, which is designed to connect Azerbaijan with Nakhchivan across the territory of Armenia, has every reason to be implemented, Kopyrkin said, "As far as the ambassador's statement is concerned, he did not speak of corridors and the logic of corridors. What he was talking about is what is stipulated in the trilateral statement of November 9, 2020 - opening up economic, transport links, communications in the region. This is a wording, a philosophy, and a logic that is accepted by all parties."
Earlier on Wednesday, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said at a press conference that Azerbaijan expects to receive a corridor in return for the opening of the Lachin corridor linking Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia.
He also described as unacceptable Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's proposal to set up checkpoints on the border between the Lachin corridor and Armenia and on both ends of the possible Zangezur corridor, through which Baku will be connected to Nakhchivan.
"Conducting new talks on the parameters of the Lachin corridor, under the threat of force, is unacceptable for us and cannot be an acceptable solution. We rule out any attempts to change the existing agreements based on the threats of the use of force," Mirzoyan said.