Edmon Marukian, who leads the opposition Bright Armenia Party, said that Azerbaijan is planning to invade Armenia to open a land corridor to its Nakhichevan exclave.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev implicitly threatened such military action last month. He again accused Yerevan of not complying with Paragraph 9 of the 2020 ceasefire agreement that commits it to opening transport links between Nakhichevan and the rest of Azerbaijan through Armenia’s strategic Syunik province.
The clause also stipulates that Russian border guards will “control” the movement of people, vehicles and goods through Syunik. The Armenian government, which is increasingly at loggerheads with Moscow, says this does not mean that they can have any “physical presence” along the would-be transit routes.
The government has offered to put in place “simplified procedures” for people and cargo transported to and from Nakhichevan. Earlier this month, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry brushed aside relevant Armenian proposals made last October. Pashinian claimed, meanwhile, that Baku may be preparing the ground to attack Armenia.
In an interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, Marukian said that the only way to prevent such an attack is to “return to the November 9 [2020] platform” established by the truce accord. He said Yerevan should link the opening of a Russian-controlled corridor for Nakhichevan to Baku’s compliance with the other provisions of the accord and the Karabakh Armenian’s right to return to Karabakh. He seemed to suggest that Moscow is in a position to pressure Aliyev to agree to their repatriation and self-rule.
Members of Pashinian’s political team made last week ambiguous statements about his current terms for opening the transport links for Nakhichevan, fueling opposition claims that Yerevan may have agreed to an extraterritorial corridor demanded by Baku. Two senior pro-government lawmakers pointedly declined to say whether Pashinian’s proposals sent to Baku stipulate that Azerbaijani travelers and cargo will be checked by Armenian border and customs officers.
Marukian claimed that Pashinian is now considering opening such a corridor “in return for nothing.”
“If they don’t return to the November 9 platform, that corridor will become a reality,” he said.
Like other opposition leaders, Marukian blamed Pashinian for Armenia’s defeat in the 2020 war and demanded his resignation in the wake of it. But he accepted the premier’s offer to become ambassador-at-large after his party fared poorly in the 2021 snap elections. He resigned a year ago, saying that Pashinian’s strategy of resolving the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict has been a complete failure and will not bring peace.