YEREVAN — Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accused Ilham Aliyev of obstructing the opening of transport links between Armenia and Azerbaijan on Tuesday after the Azerbaijani president said Yerevan must not control a land “corridor” demanded by Baku.
Speaking just hours before his fresh talks with Pashinyan planned in Brussels, Aliyev said the so-called “Zangezur corridor” that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave via Armenian territory must have the same status as the existing Lachin corridor linking Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
“There are no customs checkpoints on the Lachin corridor right now,” Aliyev said after talks with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. “The same must also be the case on the Zangezur corridor.”
“If Armenia insists on setting up customs checkpoints to control the movement of goods and people through the Zangezur corridor, then we will insist on the same conditions for the Lachin corridor,” he told reporters.
Pashinyan was quick to reject Aliyev’s demands and accuse Baku of trying to “drive the issue of opening regional transport links into deadlock.”
“The Azerbaijani president’s attempts to draw parallels between the opening of regional transport routes and the Lachin corridor have nothing to do with discussions held and statements signed on that topic to date and are unacceptable to Armenia,” he wrote on Facebook. “I will make this position clear at the trilateral meeting slated for today.”
Pashinyan referred to his planned talks with Aliyev hosted by European Council President Charles Michel. The latter held separate talks with the two leaders earlier on Tuesday.
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Perhaps an interesting glimpse into the Caspian Sea gas trade, the Artsakh War 2020 and the desire of a land corridor (Syunik Armenia) by force.
Armenia is just annoyingly in the way geographically according to the plans of the ‘Schreibtischmörder’ in Baku and Ankara.
This also clearly shows why Turkey thinks it wants to play a too important role. However, other countries are the real policymakers. The reason for Ankara and Baku in Artsakh (land corridor Armenia) was geopolitical.
The Shah Deniz field is operated by BP (UK) which has a share of 28.8%. Other partners include TPAO (Turkey 19%), SOCAR (Azerbaijan 16.7%), Petronas (Malaysia 15.5%), LUKoil (Russia 10%) and NIOC (Iran 10%).
So only 35.7% is Turkish-Azeri. In short, Baku clearly has to take into account almost 65% external non-Turkish actors. Baku’s billions of annual profits should not be disrupted.
Also interesting to know that according to sources the EBRD, EIB and ADB are involved in the financing of the gas pipelines. China has also wanted to participate.
Pan-Turkism versus land grab in Artsakh?
Land corridor through South Armenia as the ultimate hidden goal?
Yes, handy, because it ultimately revolves issues around the billions of profits from oil and gas trade.
Where have we seen that before? And also this wasn’t a fairytale but harsh reality.