YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am) — The Armenian government on Monday, July 14, ruled out the possibility of the United States taking over a land corridor that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave through Armenia.
The US ambassador to Turkey, Thomas Barrack, indicated late last week that Washington has proposed a 100-year lease on such a transport link in a bid to facilitate a peace deal between the two South Caucasus nations.
“They [Armenia and Azerbaijan] are arguing over 32 kilometers of road, but this is no joke,” Barrack told reporters in New York. “It’s been going on for a decade – 32 kilometers of road.”
“So what happens is America comes in and says, ‘Okay, we’ll take it over. Give us the 32 kilometers of road on a hundred-year lease, and you can all share it,’” he said. “But these tribal points of view do not fade.”
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s press secretary, Nazeli Baghdasaryan, dismissed the idea in comments to the official Armenpress news agency.
“We have repeatedly said that Armenia is discussing the issue of unblocking regional infrastructures exclusively in the context of Armenia’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and jurisdiction,” she said. “We cannot discuss any other logic.”
