Azerbaijan’s Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev said that in line with the Russian-brokered agreement that stopped the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh Russian border guards will oversee “unfettered” commercial traffic between Azerbaijan and its Nakhichevan exclave through Armenia’s Syunik province. He told report.az that Baku, Yerevan and Moscow are now working out “technical details” of this arrangement.
The office of Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian countered, however, that he and Mustafayev reached no such agreement during their negotiations, including a June 2 meeting in Moscow. Citing Article 9 of the ceasefire agreement, it said that the planned road and rail links will be under full Armenian control.
The clause in question stipulates that the Russian border guards stationed in Armenia will “control” the transit of people, vehicles and goods between Nakhichevan and the rest of Azerbaijan.
The Sputnik news agency quoted Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk as saying in this regard on Friday that Moscow and Baku are not questioning Armenian sovereignty over those transit routes. Asked about the possible role of the Russian border guards, he said that it depends on the Armenian side.
The issue topped the agenda of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s trilateral meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held in Moscow on May 25.
Mustafayev, Grigorian and Overchuk met in the Russian capital on June 2 to try to settle what Putin called “purely technical” issues hampering the opening of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border to commercial traffic. According to an Armenian government statement, they made “substantial progress” on the functioning of the railway leading to Nakhichevan.