YEREVAN. Jan 15 (Interfax) - Yerevan is ready to provide Baku with a link across its territory to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic on the same terms as Iran has, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said.
"Armenia is ready to give a road to Nakhchivan on the same conditions as Iran. We are ready to provide this link, both by rail and by road," Pashinyan told an initiative group of his Civil Contract Party on Saturday.
When claiming the "Zangezur Corridor," the purported link with Nakhchivan via the Armenian southern territories, Azerbaijan invokes a trilateral statement signed by the leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan on November 9, 2020 he said.
"They are saying that Armenia ostensibly assumed some obligations under that statement. But I want to point out that two of the sides in this three-sided statement basically showed, from the moment of its signature until September 2023, that this document no longer existed for them. [...] There is no way the document could not exist for two sides [Russia and Azerbaijan] while continuing to exist for the third one," Pashinyan said.
Also, the statement makes no mention of the "Zangezur Corridor" nor of the fact that Russia is to ensure control over it, he said.
"It does not say anywhere that Russia must ensure the safety of communication on any territory of Armenia. On the contrary, it says that Armenia guarantees security on its own territory. Well, naturally," Pashinyan said.