YEREVAN, AUGUST 11, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov’s statement on connecting Azerbaijan with Nakhijevan through Iranian territory doesn’t at all mean that Azerbaijan is abandoning its aspirations to get a corridor through Armenian territory, warns expert on Azerbaijan Taron Hovhannisyan.

“Azerbaijan anyhow has a road to Nakhijevan through Iranian territory, now Azerbaijan is trying to build a shortcut from the southern regions of Artsakh it occupied during the war. The Azerbaijani authorities had announced about this very early on, there is simply another issue here, that they are trying to use this to exert additional pressure on Armenia by saying that the transit road will pass through Iranian territory and Armenia will be sidelined from regional projects, and they are attempting to exert additional pressure on Armenia to agree in the issue of the so-called “Zangezur Corridor”,” Hovhannisyan said.

Hovhannisyan reminded that the Azerbaijani FM Bayramov threatened Armenia in one of his recent interviews to the Turkish Anadolu news agency, saying that “the corridor will be opened whether Armenia wants it or not”.

“The Azerbaijani side hasn’t abandoned this idea, and this is first of all a political goal for them, and also for Turkey. It is another matter that they are trying to make diversification and gain a shorter road through Iranian territory and another road through Armenia’s territory,” Hovhannisyan added.

Historian and Orientalist Armen Petrosyan told ARMENPRESS that Azerbaijan had and still has the only connection with Nakhijevan through Iranian territory, while the recent agreements are simply about the construction of a new road from territories of Artsakh that are now under Azerbaijani control after the war.

“There is nothing new here, they are simply trying to develop more affordable and beneficial connections. And they are trying to use this to blackmail and pressure Armenia. Meaning, they say that if Armenia doesn’t provide the corridor-logic road to Azerbaijan then it will be sidelined from the process of unblocking of regional connections and will remain isolated and Azerbaijan will continue its connection with the Iranian road. There is no change in Azerbaijan’s rhetoric and they still continue to demand from Armenia unblocking in the logic of corridor,” Petrosyan said.