During a government meeting on August 4, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that no one agreed on the building plan for a new route of the Lachin corridor.
He charged Azerbaijan with breaking the November 9, 2020, Tripartite Communiqué. Accordingly, paragraph 6 of this document states that by agreement of the parties, a plan for the construction of a new traffic route along the Lachin corridor, providing a connection between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, will be determined in the next three years, with the subsequent redeployment of the Russian peacekeeping contingent to protect this route.
He also noted that Armenia has started building the Kornidzor-Tegh road, which would eventually be connected to the revised Lachin corridor route. "The supply of gas and power to [the separatist] Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as security concerns, should be clarified in the plan for the building of an alternate route," said Pashinyan.
He also emphasized the necessity for clarification of the specifics of the Russian peacekeeping mission in Karabakh. Pashinyan charged the peacekeepers with supporting the capturing the Parukh/Farrukh in March 2022 and the villages of Khtzaberd/Chaylaggala and Khin Taher/Old Taglar in December 2020 and the capture of the Armenian forces there. Pashinyan criticized the peacekeepers' inaction in the circumstance. Therefore, he continued, "it is important to define the Nagorno-Karabakh peacekeeping operation". Pashinyan claims that Azerbaijan refuses to do so despite Armenia signing the mandate for the troops in November 2020.
Further, he expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that peacekeepers do not protect the line of contact - their area of responsibility. He also accused Azerbaijan of seeking to abolish the existence of the concept of "Nagorno-Karabakh," calling it a violation of the tripartite statement. “Armenia hopes that any attempt to violate the line of contact will be prevented by Russian peacekeepers, and the Azerbaijani units that violated it will be withdrawn,” Pashinyan concluded.
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