YEREVAN. March 30 (Interfax) - Yerevan has briefed Baku on the pending deployment of border troops instead of army units on the border of Armenia and the Lachin corridor, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said.
"As a result of an agreement reached by the authorities of Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh in August 2022, the route of the Lachin corridor [connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia] was changed to incorporate a new road. Due to the fact that the road connecting the Lachin corridor to Armenia was not ready, a temporary route, which entered Armenia through a bridge in Kornidzor [a populated locality in the Syunik district of Armenia], went back into Azerbaijani territory and returned to Armenia, was used," Pashinyan said at a government meeting on Thursday.
The agreement is to use the route until April 1, 2023, he said.
"We notified Azerbaijan yesterday that, after the Kornidzor bridge the road would go exclusively through Armenian territory, and Armenian border forces would be protecting the state border in that area. Border troops will occupy the former positions of Armenian Defense Ministry units," Pashinyan said.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan reported that Azerbaijani forces took control of several heights, alongside main and secondary roads and an area between the villages of Dzhagazur and Zabukh in the Lachin district, which "presents the situation as yet another blockbuster. This approach is unconstructive, to say the least," Pashinyan said.
There has been no change in Armenian positions, Pashinyan said. "The only difference is that we are planning to deploy border forces instead of army units there. We made the proposal to Azerbaijan. Hopefully, the process will be realized without provocations," he said.