Armenian lawmaker rejects Aliyev’s mischaracterization of TRIPP as ‘Zangezur Corridor’

A ruling-party lawmaker in Armenia has rejected Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s latest remarks about what he calls the “Zangezur Corridor,” noting that the Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements do not mention any such thing.

“There is no issue of argument versus counterargument here at all,” Civil Contract MP Arman Yeghoyan said at a press briefing when asked to comment on the Azerbaijani president’s remarks.

Aliyev on Tuesday appeared to once again mislabel the TRIPP project as the Zangezur Corridor, a phrase to which Yerevan has long objected because the term could imply extraterritoriality, which the agreements do not provide for.

All signed and published documents pertaining to the connectivity project officially name it as TRIPP, the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity.

“There are signed documents, statements, and even a draft agreement that has been initialed, and you will not find the phrase ‘Zangezur Corridor’ anywhere in any of these documents. There is no such thing. At the level of political discourse, many people can say many things. We also say that there is no such concept, nor infrastructure under such a term, on the territory of the Republic of Armenia. What exists on Armenia’s territory is the TRIPP project, which bears the signatures of the President of Azerbaijan, the President of the United States, and the Prime Minister of Armenia. Other documents have followed, including the trilateral joint statement published several days ago on the occasion of the first anniversary of the August 8 agreement, and that expression is not found there either,” Yeghoyan said.

Addressing the unblocking of transport routes in the South Caucasus and the benefits of the process, the lawmaker said it would be advantageous for both Armenia and Azerbaijan.

“If it were not beneficial, that document would not have been signed. The unblocking of the region under the terms described in the signed documents is, naturally, beneficial to both Armenia and Azerbaijan. Otherwise, their signatures would not be there. It is very good that their views coincide on unblocking communications under those terms,” Yeghoyan said.