Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan addressed the issue of unblocking communications in an interview with Public TV.
The Prime Minister clarified what he meant by the idea expressed in his speech during the Government session yesterday that the President of Azerbaijan refuses to use the opportunities offered by Armenia for transport communication between the western regions of Azerbaijan and the Autonomous Republic of Nakhijevan. In addition, he detailed what new proposal Armenia is going to present in the near future to Azerbaijan.
“I think that even now we need to be as transparent as possible with our public and the international community, as far as diplomatic ethics and correctness allows, so that people know what we are talking about. The beginning of this story began when, during the discussion of roads and communications, Azerbaijan said that it believes that citizens of Azerbaijan may have fears when passing through the roads of Armenia in case of having personal contacts with the border and customs officers of Armenia,” said Pashinyan.
Referring to the involvement of a third country as a service provider at the border, he said that in that version, which was transferred to Azerbaijan in December 2021, the details were a bit complicated, now they are going to present a simplified model of that version as a proposal.
Pashinyan, however, mentioned that if we are going to serve the agenda of establishing peace in the region, saying that Azerbaijanis should not communicate with Armenians, and Armenians with Azerbaijanis, is not very correct.
“Of course, it is understandable that these contacts should be organized in some way, and we believe that in the end we should return to the simplest version, that Azerbaijani officers control the border of Azerbaijan, and Armenian officers control the border of Armenia,” Pashinyan said.
The Prime Minister gave a positive answer to the clarifying question of Tatev Danielyan, whether it is another proposal.
According to the Prime Minister, the problem is as follows - if this is really a communication issue for Azerbaijan and not an opportunity for escalation, the issue is practically resolved.
Nikol Pashinyan said, “It is just needed to record what is agreed upon and move on.”