I don’t agree with the Armenian authorities’ statements that a part of the Goris-Kapan motorway passes through Azerbaijani territory. This is what former Minister of Transport and Communication of Armenia, analyst Henrik Kochinyan told reporters in parliament which is holding hearings over demarcation and delimitation of Armenia’s borders with Azerbaijan.

According to him, after the 44-day war in Nagorno-Karabakh, within the scope of comparison of borders, the Armenian Armed Forces retreated from a number of military posts in Syunik Province, as a result of which a part of the Goris-Kapan motorway, which is of strategic significance, is now under Azerbaijani control.

“The Armenian government explains this with the fact that, according to the map, there are a few parts of the motorway that are within Azerbaijani territory. Nevertheless, I tend to differ. When the Council of Ministers of Soviet Armenia made a decision on construction of the Goris-Kapan motorway in the 1960s, it knew very well about Armenia’s border and knew why they were building the motorway, and the aim was to disrupt Azerbaijan’s pretensions,” Kochinyan clarified.

The analyst clarified that back then, the authorities of Soviet Azerbaijan wanted to build a network of roads along the length of the left bank of Araks River so that they could break Armenia away from the southern borders, but as a result, the road was built in the south of Armenia.