Transport Corridor at Center of Fresh Accusations between Baku and Yerevan

YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)—Armenia and Azerbaijan have again accused each other of not complying with a 2020 deal to open their border to trade and travel.

Speaking at a weekend conference in Yerevan, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan promoted his government’s “Crossroads of Peace” project meant to serve as a blueprint for Armenian-Azerbaijani transport links. He insisted that it is in line with Paragraph 9 of the Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement that stopped the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh. The clause commits Yerevan to opening a transport corridor that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave through Armenia’s Syunik province.

The project touted by Pashinyan says that Armenia must have full control over the transport corridor to Nakhichevan. Pashinian suggested that Baku is opposed to it because it has “aggressive intentions towards Armenia” and wants to continue its blockade of his country.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry was quick to deny the claim. Its spokesman, Aykhan Hajizade, accused the Armenian premier of “distorting the reality” and being “negligent” of Yerevan’s obligations under Paragraph 9.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry on Monday rejected the accusation and said Baku itself has violated other, more important provisions of the 2020 truce accord.

“The ‘Crossroads of Peace’ project also accurately reflects a roadmap for the fulfillment of the obligations undertaken by the Republic of Armenia, within the framework of which we have forwarded proposals to the Azerbaijani side,” said the ministry spokeswoman, Ani Badalyan.

Badalian did not disclose those proposals or say whether the Azerbaijani side responded to them. She urged it to start the “process of unblocking” bilateral transport links “as soon as possible.”

The Azerbaijani leadership insists on an extraterritorial corridor for Nakhichevan whereby people and cargo transported to and from the exclave through Syunik must be exempt from Armenian border checks. Syunik is the only Armenian province bordering Iran. This explains why Tehran is strongly opposed to the “Zangezur corridor” sought by Baku.

In late August, Russia also accused Armenia of “sabotaging” the 2020 deal. Yerevan has rejected the Russian accusations that added to its heightened tensions with Moscow.

Paragraph 9 stipulates that Russian border guards will “control” the transit of people, vehicles and goods through Syunik. Badalyan insisted that this does not mean that they can have any “physical presence” along the would-be transit routes.

The practical modalities of the corridor were due to be worked out by a Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani task force. Moscow says that Yerevan has refused to implement concrete agreements that were reached by it in June 2023. Armenian leaders have denied that. They came up with the “Crossroads of Peace” project in November 2023.

Earlier this year, Baku and Yerevan agreed to exclude the issue from a draft peace treaty discussed by them. Pashinyan’s government hoped that this would facilitate the signing of the treaty. However, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has made that conditional on a change of Armenia’s constitution. Aliyev has set further conditions for Yerevan in recent weeks.