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Narek Karapetyan, head of the “Strong Armenia” opposition parliamentary faction, said that any transport, logistics, or electricity transmission infrastructure passing through Armenian territory must have Armenia’s consent and provide economic benefits to the country.
Karapetyan was asked to comment on the TRIPP project and statements made by the President of Azerbaijan regarding it.
Earlier on Tuesday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, speaking about the TRIPP project in an interview, appeared to once again mislabel it as the “Zangezur Corridor,” a term to which Yerevan has long objected because it could imply extraterritoriality, which the agreements do not provide for.
The Azerbaijani president also stated that, within the framework of TRIPP, the project for an electricity transmission line from Azerbaijan’s mainland through Armenian territory to Nakhchivan is ready. According to him, based on analyses conducted by Azerbaijani specialists, potential locations for installing electricity poles in Armenian territory have already been identified.
Narek Karapetyan stressed that TRIPP is a route through Armenia’s sovereign territory and that no country has the right to call it a “corridor.”
“If they want to build electricity transmission lines through Armenian territory, they should pay us for it. Let them pay and build them if they want to. Our country must benefit from this. They must pay after obtaining Armenia’s consent,” Karapetyan said.
According to the lawmaker, this principle should apply to any infrastructure passing through Armenian territory.
“If any country—from the south, north, east, or west—wants to build any transport, logistics, or electricity transmission line through Armenian territory, it must pay our state and our people for it. I am only aware of the Azerbaijani president’s statement that they are proposing transit through Armenia and are waiting for a response from the Armenian leadership,” Karapetyan said.