13:10, 16 January 2024

YEREVAN, JANUARY 16, ARMENPRESS. The 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement doesn’t provide for Russia establishing control over any road, an Armenian lawmaker has said.

Gevorg Papoyan, a Member of Parliament representing the Civil Contract Party who chairs the parliamentary committee on financial-credit and budgetary affairs, told reporters that the ceasefire deal, referred to as the 9 November statement, provides for the unblocking of all economic and transport routes, but not Russian control over any road. 

“There’s no such clause. When we read clause nine, we see that this clause says that Armenia must simply provide a road. And Armenia is ready to provide that road, in line with our legislation. Who says that Armenia has ever closed the roads? Second of all, let’s talk generally about the 9 November statement. Does it contain a single clause which Russia and Azerbaijan have implemented? There is no such clause. They’ve failed to do everything they had assumed under all clauses,” Papoyan said.

“The 9 November statement doesn’t contain a clause saying that Russia should control something. It is about the opening of roads, unblocking of connections, which is Armenia’s agenda,” Papoyan said.

Papoyan also responded to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who recently said that he is rejecting the maps proposed by Armenia for delimitation of borders.

The legislator said that Aliyev’s statement is unacceptable for Armenia, and if Azerbaijan is rejecting the maps, then it should present the kind of maps which have legal basis.

Armenia wants the process to be carried out with any map that has legal basis, he said.

“A map must have a legal basis and constitute an official document, and not a map drawn by historians the way they like. That can’t be. Presenting that kind of a map will lead to war,” Papoyan said.

He added that although Aliyev’s statements are not conducive to peace, Armenia will continue the negotiations with Azerbaijan.