YEREVAN. – In the snap [parliamentary] elections [on June 20], the [ruling] Civil Contract Party received a mandate from the citizens to open a peaceful era for Armenia and Artsakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)]. Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this at Thursday’s Cabinet meeting of the interim government of Armenia.

"This mandate presupposes the creation of a favorable environment around our country, the opening of regional communications, the establishment of regional stability and lasting peace.

After the snap NA [(National Assembly)] elections, however, what we had predicted happened and is happening, saying that there is a high probability that Azerbaijan, in spite of the peace-loving statements made in the international arena, will do everything to hinder peace in the region, and [it] will do this with a tactic that is also predictable: showing that Armenia or Artsakh are supposedly against peace, against the [border] delimitation and demarcation processes, and against this background, will create false justifications for building an aggressive policy, the manifestations of which we see in recent days; but we have seen that in recent months as well.

In particular, the working group—working at the level of deputy prime ministers of Russia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan—is carrying out quite constructive and effective work on the opening of regional communications. And Azerbaijan's incomprehensible statements about the so-called 'Zangezur Corridor' have nothing to do with the work done by the working group and, more importantly, with the content of the January 11 trilateral statement in Moscow, which reveals what the 9th point of the November 9 trilateral statement means and how it shall be implemented.

My interpretation is unequivocal: Azerbaijan is making statements about the corridor in order to disrupt the work of the trilateral working group and not to permit the opening of regional communications. Why? Because Azerbaijan's goal is to continue its about-30-year policy of blockade of Armenia.

But we will continue the work—without hesitation—at trilateral working group to break the blockade of Armenia, and with the support of Russia and our international partners, we will achieve the opening of regional communications; that is, the unblocking of Armenia," Pashinyan added.