It was possible to prevent Azerbaijan from carrying out border inspection of Armenian trucks and Armenian citizens on the Goris-Kapan motorway, but at the cost of corridor logic, it is inadmissible for us. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this at Thursday’s Cabinet session of the government of Armenia.

"As you know, since August 2021, Azerbaijan has been collecting customs duties from Iranian trucks on the Goris-Kapan motorway’s Eyvazli-Chayzam section which passes through its territory," he said.

Pashinyan said that an unofficial notification was received Wednesday from Azerbaijan that as of midnight Thursday, they are going to carry out customs and passport inspections also for Armenian citizens and Armenian goods.

"After that, we decided to direct the citizens moving through this section to the Kapan-Aghvan-Tatev-Halidzor-Shinuayr road. This road’s Tatev-Aghvan section , which was impassable for several decades, was put into operation last week. Last Thursday I went to Kapan [city] and returned. I can say that we have received a quality road which requires certain improvements for a more comfortable passage of trucks with trailers. About 100 trucks with trailers passed along the Kapan-Tatev road from midnight to dawn," the Prime Minister added.

According to him, the situation will not change for the Iranian trucks after Wednesday’s decision of Azerbaijan, with the only difference that they can now travel also on the paved Tatev-Aghvan road without paying additional customs duties.

"The length of the road from Yerevan to Kapan with the new route and vice versa is reduced, taking into account the quality of the road. Unprecedented road construction work is being carried out on the Yeraskh-Goris, Tatev-Ltsen, Shurnukh, Vorotan, and several other roads. As a result of the changes, no village has been cut off. To avoid speculation, let me say that the Azerbaijani checkpoint on the Goris-Kapan road is not in the territory of Armenia; it is about the Eyvazli section. If necessary, we [i.e., Armenia] will also introduce customs and passport inspection on the Goris-Kapan road," he assured.

Pashinyan stressed that the unblocking of regional communications shall take place without extra-territoriality.

"We do not discuss and will not discuss the corridor logic; this is specified in a trilateral format. In recent weeks, this logic has been confirmed by Russia, too, and in this context, the Azerbaijani side has made this decision. Armenia continues to adhere to the logic of fulfilling the statements of November 9 and January 11 in terms of unblocking all communications. We are interested in that, and we hope to come to a concrete decision soon based on the principles that are agreed upon within the framework of the tripartite working group. We need cool-headedness and strong nerves. A new environment is being formed around Armenia, which should correspond to our long-term strategic interests, and we are going that way," Nikol Pashinyan concluded.