Parliamentarian: Goris-Kapan road is not included in the borders of  Armenia

ArmInfo. The Goris-Kapan road is not included in the borders of Armenia. Vahagn Aleksanyan, a MP  from the ruling Civil Contract party, announced this during a  briefing on October 10.  At the same time, he indicated that this  section is not included in the borders of Armenia, according to the  law "On the administrative-territorial division of the RA", adopted  by the Parliament of the country in 2010.

In response to the journalist's remark about why this road was part  of the territory of Armenia for 30 years, the MP noted that this was  ensured due to the victory in the First Artsakh War.

It should be noted that at the beginning of November 2021, the  government of the Republic of Armenia announced that 21 km of the  Goris-Kapan interstate road had been placed under the control of the  Azerbaijani Armed Forces. The Azerbaijani side has established  checkpoints in these areas and is now demanding tax payments. As a  result of these actions, a number of Armenian villages were under  blockade.  Due to the situation, the Government initiated the  construction of a number of alternative roads.  At a briefing in  November 2021, the Minister of Territorial Administration and  Infrastructures of the Republic of Armenia Gnel Sanoyan stated that  the construction of an alternative road does not mean that the  Armenian authorities no longer pin their hopes on the 21-kilometer  section of the Goris-Kapan road, which came under the control of  Azerbaijan. He stressed that delimitation and demarcation will decide  everything. <We will not give up this road, this road is our road,  except for two sections that are disputed.  That is, delimitation,  demarcation will show whether this is true or not. There will be  painful areas in this process or not, but that there is a need for  clarification, I think you agree: It cannot be at the border all the  time so that someone gets up and says - this is mine. This cannot go  on indefinitely>, the minister said. It should be noted that the  ex-Minister of Transport and Communications of Armenia, expert Henrik  Kochinyan, answering the question about the construction of 7  alternative roads in the Syunik region of Armenia, in exchange for  those that came under the control of Azerbaijan, stressed that he did  not agree with the statements of the country's authorities that that  part of the Goris-Kapan highway passes through Azerbaijani territory.  He recalled that part of this road was being built back in the 1960s,  and then they knew perfectly well where and what they were building. 

<The Armenian government explains this by saying that according to  the map, the road enters Azerbaijani territory in several places.  However, I have a slightly different point of view on this. When in  the 1960s of the last century the Council of Ministers of the  Armenian SSR decided to build the Goris-Kapan road, did they not know  how the border of Armenia runs? The Council of Ministers clearly knew  this, since not a single illiterate person could be in its  composition. They knew what they were building for. And they built it  in order to interfere with Azerbaijani ambitions. Even then, the  authorities of the Azerbaijan SSR wanted to build a network of roads  along the left bank of the Araks, in order to then cut off Armenia  from the southern borders in order to drive a wedge. The Armenian  side did not want to pass through Nakhichevan, which is why the  Goris- Kapan road was built then, just as the Meghri-Kajaran road was  built at one time>, Kochinyan explained, while he wondered how the  Armenian SSR could build a road on the territory of Azerbaijan, and  then also serve it for decades.