During his participation in the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkey, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, Ararat Mirzoyan, gave an interview to Turkish NTV television.

Question: Before going to the Türkiye-Armenia relations, please don't take it offensive, but about the “Zengezur Passage”, I know that you, in Armenia, don't use that wording, but the Turkish public is very well known with this word. That's why I'm referring to this “Zengezur” route. Türkiye is closely following up that when it's going that passage, that route will be open. What is your call in that? I mean, will it be in the near timeline, do you think?

Ararat Mirzoyan: Well, first of all, we don't have any problem with passage, with route, in general, with opening the infrastructures.

Question: No, I mean the wording that I was telling about the “Zengezur”.

Ararat Mirzoyan: The whole world now speaks about new transport transit corridors, and we are fully okay with that. Moreover, we understand that we are going to be one of the first beneficiaries if the infrastructure is being unblocked. The problem is that in Azerbaijani perspective of that passage, we see some signs of an extraterritorial control, an extraterritorial corridor, which is, of course, unacceptable for us. For instance, and I think this could be interesting for the Turkish society also to know the details. So, we just proposed to Azerbaijan to open the whole railway infrastructure of both countries for both sides, so that they can use our railways, we can use their railways. In that part, which is the shortest possible connection between main Azerbaijan and the Nakhijevan Republic, we suggest the following. We suggest using modern technologies, for instance, electronic scanners, which will allow us not to avoid the physical check of the goods.

We suggest submitting electronic declarations, which again will allow us to avoid physical check, to speed up the transit, etc. We suggest using some insurance or reinsurance tools to make sure that the passage is safe, and many others. Our understanding was that the first reaction of the Azerbaijani side was very positive. Now we see that they continue to hesitate. Why? I cannot say for sure, because I don't see any rational reason to reject this issue, this proposal. So, we suggest to immediately start this, to open the transport infrastructure. At first stage, railway passage, at first stage for cargo, and then if it runs smoothly, we can proceed to passengers, etc.

And we understand that this unblocking of the communications will eventually end up with unblocking the communications and reestablishing the railway connection between Armenia and Türkiye as well. And we are interested in it. And we see that this project has the potential to completely change the logistical picture of at least this part of the world.

I don't see any negative influence, any negative impact for any of the sides involved.