“Armenia must fulfill its obligations and ensure unhindered passage from Azerbaijan to Azerbaijan,” he said during a meeting with Azerbaijani government officials.
Aliyev accused Yerevan of not complying with a relevant provision of a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement that stopped the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The clause commits Armenia to opening rail and road links between Nakhichevan and the rest of Azerbaijan through Syunik, the sole Armenian province bordering Iran. It says that Russian border guards will “control” the movement of people, vehicles and goods.
The Armenian government maintains that the truce accord calls for only conventional transport links between Armenia and Azerbaijan and does not exempt people and cargo transported to and from Nakhichevan from Armenian border checks. The government’s Crossroads of Peace project regularly promoted by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian stipulates that the two South Caucasus states should have full control of transport infrastructure inside each other’s territory.
Aliyev shrugged off the project, saying Baku has repeatedly made clear to Yerevan that it is “not worth a penny.” He accused the Armenian side of misleading the international community with various “manipulations.”
Pashinian insisted on the project in response to Aliyev’s January 7 threats to forcibly open the “Zangezur corridor.” He said Yerevan is still awaiting Baku’s reply to its “very concrete proposal” on the issue made after his most recent talks with the Azerbaijani leader held in October.
Armenian officials said earlier in 2024 that Azerbaijan may be planning to launch another military aggression against Armenia after hosting the COP29 climate summit in November. Pashinian’s domestic critics as well as some analysts have portrayed Aliyev’s threats as a further indication of Baku’s war preparations.