By Ruzanna Stepanian
YEREVAN (Azatutyun) — Azerbaijan may attack Armenia in the coming weeks to open a land corridor to its Nakhichevan exclave unless the West imposes sanctions on Baku, a senior Armenian diplomat claimed in an interview published on October 9.
“We are now under imminent threat of invasion into Armenia because if [Azerbaijani President Ilham] Aliyev is not confronted with very practical steps taken by the so-called collective West, then he has no reason or incentive to limit himself to the territory of Nagorno -Karabakh,” Tigran Balayan, the Armenian ambassador to the EU, told BrusselsSignal.eu.
“He and some of his Turkish counterparts have declared that they need to open a land corridor through Armenia’s sovereign territory,” said Balayan.
Asked just how imminent the attack is, he said. “I think if bold steps are not taken, it’s a matter of weeks.”
The Armenian Foreign Ministry did not clarify as of Monday evening whether Balayan’s remarks reflect his official position and, if so, what they are based on. For its part, the Defense Ministry in Yerevan said only that the situation along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border is “relatively stable” now.
