At this phase Armenia offers Azerbaijan to open railway connection, says Pashinyan

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Wednesday that he proposed Azerbaijan to open the railway connection in the context of unblocking regional connections in the South Caucasus.

Speaking to reporters, Pashinyan said that Armenia presented its stances in the Crossroads of Peace project long ago.

“And we started and will continue the work within the framework of that project,” Pashinyan said.

Asked whether Azerbaijan responded, Pashinyan said, “Basically we haven’t received a written answer to the written proposal. There are other comments.”

Any project has nuances during implementation and work must be done around those nuances, Pashinyan added.

“Within the framework of the Crossroads of Peace project we have stipulated that we are ready for simplification of procedures by preserving four main principles, territorial integrity, sovereignty, jurisdiction and reciprocity. Now, at this phase, we are proposing to open the railway connection, namely the Horadiz-Yeraskh line, and for cargo shipments to take place from Azerbaijan to Azerbaijan through the territory of Armenia, and from Armenia to Armenia through the territory of Azerbaijan,” Pashinyan said. He said Armenia was ready to implement these solutions immediately. 

“And it is also very important to note, that when we say we are ready for these solutions, we are asking ourselves a question, how would our society treat these solutions that we are proposing? If we are confidently saying this, it means we have certain confidence that our population will see and say ‘it is a normal compromise and it can be mutually acceptable’. This is the logic,” Pashinyan said.

Pashinyan noted that Azerbaijan claims that Armenia isn’t giving solutions and that’s why they would use the Iranian railway instead, and added, “This means that Iran’s railway and terms are acceptable for them. In order for everything to be clear in this context, we are saying that we are ready to ensure the same terms with which Azerbaijan is passing through the territory of Iran, in case of passing through the territory of Armenia. Thus, we are showing that the perception as if our proposed terms could be unacceptable for Azerbaijan are false. If the same terms are acceptable for passing through the territory of Iran, why should it be unacceptable for passing through the territory of Armenia?”