Speaker: there cannot be clause on "Zangezur corridor" in  Armenia-Azerbaijan peace treaty 

ArmInfo. There cannot be any clause about the "Zangezur corridor" in the peace treaty between  Armenia and Azerbaijan. Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia Alen Simonyan told reporters on January 15.

According to him, Azerbaijan's desire to establish a land connection  with Nakhichevan is understandable, and Armenia is ready not only to  open the road, but also to consider the possibility of a simplified  travel procedure. "However, there can be no talk of any  extraterritorial corridor. This is embedded in three main principles  already agreed upon with the President of Azerbaijan in the presence  of Charles Michel. A corresponding statement was made on July 15 last  year. "As for the road to Nakhichevan through Iran, Armenia is ready  to offer Azerbaijan the same conditions," said Simonyan.

Noting that there is no regression in the negotiations on the  Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement, the speaker emphasized that there is  an agreement under discussion, on the points of which the parties are  currently moving forward. The negotiations and the exchange of  documents continue, there is progress, and the answer of RA Prime  Minister Nikol Pashinyan can be considered an expression of surprise,  because often the rhetoric of the Azerbaijani side goes beyond the  scope of the conversations, theses and documents that the parties  transfer to each other. This is often incomprehensible," Simonyan  said. Answering the question about what is the essence of the  negotiations against the backdrop of the fact that recent statements  by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev jeopardize the peace process,  the speaker said that the negotiations are about peace. "For example,  when we talk about the withdrawal of troops, we mean a mirror  withdrawal. All provisions apply to both Armenia and Azerbaijan," he  said.

Answering the question of how, in this case, one can evaluate the  position of Baku, which, unlike Yerevan, has not yet recognized the  territorial integrity of Armenia, the speaker said that "the  President of Azerbaijan has personally made public statements about  the territorial integrity of Armenia more than once." "If we are  talking about 29.8 thousand sq. km of the territory of Armenia - yes,  this figure was not mentioned verbatim, and we expect this to also  happen," he said, noting that the reasons why the Azerbaijani side  refrains from voicing this figure rests on the process of  delimitation and demarcation of the Armenian- Azerbaijani border. In  response to the suggestion that Azerbaijan's reluctance to recognize  the territorial integrity of Armenia is connected with Aliyev's  latest statement about Yerevan, Simonyan said that "the president of  a neighboring country is mirroring what the Armenian side has done in  recent years." "After all, we constantly say that these are our  historical territories: It can be noted that this is "mirror  rhetoric".  Aliyev is talking about something in order to create a  counterbalance to the narratives that we have been forming for 30  years. We said that Nakhichevan is Armenia, we said that Karabakh is  Armenia, we said that we would reach Baku, where we would drink tea,"  he said.

On January 13, RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that the  statements coming from Baku in recent days are a serious blow to the  peace process. He recalled that the Armenian side has repeatedly  stated that peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as the  demarcation and delimitation of borders should be based on the  Alma-Ata Declaration of 1991. According to him, these agreements  between Armenia and Azerbaijan were confirmed during the Prague  meeting on October 6, 2022 with the quadripartite declaration adopted  resulted it, and in the same month in Sochi, and on July 15 in  Brussels during a tripartite meeting. Pashinyan believes that Baku's  latest statements at the highest level directly contradict this logic  and this agreement.

Earlier, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev made a number of harsh  statements. In particular, Baku insists on signing a peace treaty,  bypassing the "guarantor mechanism" that Yerevan is seeking. Ilham  Aliyev also said that Azerbaijani soldiers "will not retreat a single  step" from the occupied positions in May 2021 and September 2022. In  addition, the Azerbaijani leader threatened to keep the border with  Armenia closed along the entire perimeter "if the Zangezur corridor  is not opened."