Russia says no alternative to transport links between Azerbaijan, Nakhchivan through Armenia

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Russia said on Thursday that there is no alternative to the transport link connecting Azerbaijan with its exclave of Nakhchivan through Armenia, as defined by a 2020 tripartite agreement between Moscow, Baku, and Yerevan ending 44 days of clashes in Karabakh.

“I am convinced that there is no alternative to resuming such transport links (between Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan). Its parameters are enshrined in a tripartite agreement. The route passes through the sovereign territory of Armenia under the control of the Border Service of the Russian Federal Security Service,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a news conference in Moscow reviewing diplomatic developments from the last year.

Lavrov’s comments came in reaction to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan saying this week that Yerevan is ready to provide rail and road communications between Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan “on the conditions under which Iran provides,” referring to a route farther south, across the border in neighboring Iran.

“What Mr. Pashinyan said … I did not see any logic here, frankly speaking. It is hardly appropriate to compare these routes,” Lavrov further said.

Concerning the peace negotiations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Lavrov said that the lack of progress in the normalization between the two countries is caused by Yerevan’s position, which he said is advised by the West.

“I don’t know who is advising Yerevan to do what … But we saw how the EU, France, Germany, the US, as soon as they realized that the Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani process was producing results in unblocking routes, delimiting the border, and preparing a peace treaty, here they began to infiltrate these processes without invitation,” he added.

He went on to say that while the West wants a peace deal to be signed on its territory, Azerbaijan is ready to sign a peace agreement with Armenia in Russia, but that Armenia’s position remains unclear.

Relations between the two former Soviet republics have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

Most of the territory was liberated by Azerbaijan during a war in the fall of 2020, which ended after a Russian-brokered peace agreement that also opened the door to normalization. ​​​​​​​

Azerbaijan established full sovereignty in Karabakh following an anti-terrorism operation last September, after which separatist forces in the region surrendered.​​​​​​​