YEREVAN (Azatutyun) — The Armenian government has turned down a US proposal to lease a land corridor that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave through Armenia, according to a senior lawmaker allied to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, on July 24.
The US ambassador to Turkey, Thomas Barrack, revealed on July 11 that Washington offered a 100-year lease on the would-be transport link in a bid to facilitate a peace deal between the two South Caucasus nations. Pashinyan’s press secretary, Nazeli Baghdasarian, ruled out such a possibility on July 14, arguing that Armenian law allows only the lease of agricultural land for farming or grazing purposes.
However, Pashinyan seemed open to the idea when he commented on it during a news conference held two days later.
“Under our legislation… this is called a construction permit,” he said. “And under certain conditions, investments granted under this right to build remain or become the property of the Republic of Armenia after the expiration of a contract.”
Arman Yeghoyan, the pro-government chairman of the Armenian parliamentary committee on European integration, raised more questions about Yerevan’s stance in an interview with Factor.am late on July 24.
“The Americans had such an idea but it was not acceptable to us … because we saw a danger of ceding our sovereignty there,” Yeghoyan said, adding that it is therefore not on the agenda of Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations.
