Transit of Azerbaijani Cargo Through Armenia Will Be Checked by Border Control

YEREVAN — Transit of Azerbaijani cargo through Armenia (to its exclave Nakhichevan) will definitely be subject to both border control and checks, Armenian Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan said at a press briefing on Thursday.

“We have repeatedly stated that no extraterritorial corridor will be provided to Azerbaijan through the territory of Armenia. When we declare a convergence of positions, it means that we (Armenia and Azerbaijan) have advanced solely in such an issue as border control. We have never discussed the extraterritorial corridor issue,” Grigoryan said.

He reminded that the issue of unblocking transport infrastructure between Armenia and Azerbaijan had been discussed both in Moscow and Brussels by the leaders of both countries. For a long time, Azerbaijan claimed that the corridor issue was being discussed, but earlier Deputy Prime Minister of Russia denied this during a visit to Yerevan.

Alexei Overchuk is the Russian co-chair of the Armenian-Russian-Azerbaijani trilateral working group set up to deal with these issues alonmg with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts.

“The same thing happened after Brussels, when Azerbaijan said that a corridor was allegedly being discussed, but a spokesman for European Council President Charles Michel officially said that the corridor was never discussed,” Grigoryan said.

Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Mher Grigoryan said that the working group managed to bring Yerevan’s and Baku’s positions closer on many issues. Russian daily Izvestia wrote that Armenia and Azerbaijan, with Russian assistance, had agreed on a highway through the Syunik region of Armenia.