Azerbaijan is openly blackmailing Armenia through the Lachin corridor, and demanding Armenia to provide a "corridor" through its Syunik Province.
Azerbaijan, citing the tripartite statement of November 9, 2020, demands a "corridor" from Armenia, claiming that the status of this road should be similar to the status of the Lachin corridor which connects Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia.
Since it is obvious that there is no mention of a "corridor" passing through Armenia in the aforesaid statement, various Azerbaijani officials have started to make claims to Armenia that the Lachin corridor is being used "inappropriately."
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated Thursday that with such "attacks," Azerbaijan was preparing grounds for the ethnic cleansing of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh.
And the response by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Azerbaijan was not late. It assessed the claims of the Armenian PM about Azerbaijan’s plans to close the Lachin corridor as an attempt to deliberately escalate tension in the region, and again accused the Armenian side of using the that motorway for illegal military activities.
"The Armenian side, in violation of the obligations assumed by the ninth point of the tripartite statement, is delaying the process of opening communications between the western regions of Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. Azerbaijan, in its turn, by building the new Lachin road, clearly fulfills its obligations. In this case, the claims of the Prime Minister of Armenia that Azerbaijan intends to close the Lachin corridor are nothing but a deliberate attempt to aggravate the situation in the region," said Ayhan Hajizade, head of the press service of the Azerbaijani MFA, in the comments published by the Azerbaijani media.
The official representative of the Azerbaijani MFA emphasized that with the tripartite statement, Baku guarantees the safety of the movement of people, vehicles, and cargo in two directions—only through the Lachin road—, whereas "using that road for military purposes is impermissible."
"As Armenia’s officials also admit, the Armenian armed units have not been completely withdrawn from the Azerbaijani territories; also, landmines that were made in Armenia in 2021 are being sent to the Azerbaijani territory. And this means that contrary to the sixth point of the tripartite statement, the Armenian side continues the abuse of using the Lachin road for illegal military activities," the aforementioned comments also read.
