TEHRAN – Armenian Ambassador to Iran Arsen Avagyan has reiterated the South Caucasus nation’s position of not giving a route to the Republic of Azerbaijan in an interview with the Tasnim news agency.

He rejected the Republic of Azerbaijan’s idea for the so-called ‘Zangezur’ corridor, emphasizing that his country won’t allow any third party to use its soil to establish any route.

Avagyan lashed out at the Republic of Azerbaijan for proposing the idea of the so-called Zangezur corridor while Yerevan and Baku have not signed any document in this regard.

Armenia has made it clear several times that it won’t allow any third country to use any route on its soil and has not made any commitment to such an issue, he stated, according to Tasnim.

The envoy stressed that Armenia remains committed only to the contents of a trilateral statement signed on November 9, 2020, about securing safe land connections between the western parts of the Azerbaijan Republic and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.

To that end, Avagyan added, a number of border crossings have been set up along the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan. “As mentioned by the prime minister of Armenia, the Azeri citizens can now use these routes to travel to Nakhchivan and vice versa.”

Asked about the ceasefire between Yerevan and Baku and the latest political and legal conditions in the Caucasus, the envoy said Armenia has repeatedly expressed its readiness to sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan and start the process of demarcation of boundaries.

Despite the international community’s explicit recommendation for the establishment of peace, Azerbaijan has always launched new schemes instead of carrying out the previous agreements, the ambassador stated.

He said the Azeri schemes have since May 2021 resulted in the occupation of large pieces of land that are within the borders under the sovereignty of Armenia.

Deploring the aggressive policies of Azerbaijan, the ambassador said Azeri military forces launched an onslaught on residential areas on September 13 and 14, bombed and shelled the Armenian regions, illegally occupied parts of Armenia’s provinces of Syunik and Gegharkunik, and posed direct threats to the Armenian cities and its urban infrastructure.

The fundamental measure to achieve peace is the cessation of Azerbaijan’s hostile actions against Armenia and the return to the course of peace talks with the purpose of signing a peace treaty, he underlined.

As a result of the Azeri military attacks in May 2021, November 2021 and September 2022, the internationally-recognized territorial integrity of Armenia has been violated, he added.

The ambassador also said that Armenia has always shown constructive behavior and offered flexible proposals to address the problems.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a bitter dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is now under the sovereignty of Azerbaijan as a result of the 44-day war of 2020 in which Baku recaptured much of the disputed region. Baku now says it wants a corridor linking the autonomous region of Nakhichevan to mainland Azerbaijan, something that Yerevan strongly rejects.