“Armenia Has Never Agreed for a Third Country to Control Any Part of It’s Sovereign Territory” FM Spokesperson

YEREVAN — No third country can establish control over any part of Armenia’s sovereign territory, Spokesperson for the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ani Badalyan said in a statement.

The comments come after Russian Foreign Ministry’s official representative Maria Zakharova said that under the tripartite statement dated November 9, 2020, the Russian border guards must control transport communications between Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan through the territory of Armenia.

Zakharova said that a Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani task force came close to working out all practical modalities of the transport links during over a dozen meetings held in Moscow. The process was not completed because “somebody simply lacks the political will to do this,” she told a news briefing.

Zakharova also commented on the recent creation of a special unit of Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) tasked with ensuring the safe transit of people, goods and other cargo through the country. Citing the ceasefire agreement that stopped the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh, she said that it is Russian border guards that should exercise “control over transport communications” between Nakhichevan and the rest of Azerbaijan.

‘The Government of the Republic of Armenia recently published the “Crossroads of Peace” project, the basic principles of which make it clear that in case of the opening of regional communications, the Republic of Armenia should implement border and customs control in its territory through its state institutions,” Ani Badalyan said in response.

She reminded that a special department was recently created within the National Security Service of Armenia to ensure the safety of these communications, as well as the safe passage of goods, cargo, vehicles and people in case of the opening of regional communications.

“The Republic of Armenia has never, in any document, agreed to any limitation of its sovereignty, and control of a third country cannot be established over any part of its sovereign territory,” the Spokesperson stated.