Azerbaijani MP proposes 'renting' Zangezur corridor from Armenia to connect to Nakhichevan exclave
Azerbaijani MP has proposed to rent the Zangezur corridor, which, as part of the trilateral peace agreement of the second Karabakh war, should connect Azerbaijan with its exclave – the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic. To this day, this clause of the trilateral agreement has not yet been implemented.
The corridor connecting Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan will have to pass through Armenia, and the Azerbaijani MP proposed Baku to rent it.
- Azerbaijan detains and later releases another Armenian soldier for crossing the border
- Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan hold trilateral consultations on de-escalation of border crisis
- Georgian Dream founder Ivanishvili accuses ex-PM Gakharia of being a “traitor”
Azerbaijan must connect with its enclaves
Erkin Gadirli, a member of the Azerbaijani parliament from the opposition Republican Alternative party, shared his thoughts on the Zangezur corridor and other issues that remain unresolved between Azerbaijan and Armenia after the end of the war in and around Karabakh.
“We are located in territories that we consider ours. The controversial enclaves are also ours, and we should be there. We must not talk about it, we must settle there.
“These territories cannot remain as enclaves and must somehow be connected with the main part of Azerbaijan”, the MP said.
The possibility of buying and selling state territories
In his opinion, there are many ways to implement this within the framework of international law:
“These territories can be bought, for example, for money. I can cite many precedents like this from different world practices. For instance, China bought 1,000 sq. km of territory from Tajikistan, Kazakhstan sold 400 sq. km and Kyrgyzstan – 200 sq. km of its territories to China.
If you remember, Trump wanted to buy Greenland but Denmark did not agree to sell it. In other words, the purchase and sale of land between states is a very normal practice in international law”, Gadirli said.
“I do not insist that we should also act in this way, but I emphasize that there are precedents like this in world practice”, the deputy added.
Azerbaijan can rent the Zangezur corridor
Erkin Gadirli then projected the given examples onto the region:
“For example, take the Zangezur corridor. We can rent it for 100 years. Slowly master the territories and introduce them to our circle of interests. All this is can be done within the framework of international law.
Such a proposal can be made during negotiations. We have to examine it further”.
Why doesn’t the CSTO intervene in the conflict?
During his speech, the MP also commented on Armenia’s appeal to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
“There are no grounds for the organization to interfere in the border issue between Armenia and Azerbaijan. If such grounds existed they could have intervened during the active phase of the war.
Azerbaijan has built its foreign policy in such a way that almost all members of the CSTO, with the exception of Russia (this is a large country and stands apart) – Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan stand with us. They will not go against us, rather the opposite is true.
During the war, Russia did not behave as Pashinyan had hoped. The Armenian prime minister also violated Russia’s interests by inviting mediators from France and the United States to the region.
I don’t want to discuss Russia, as we will have our own problems with it in the future.
As for the introduction of international mediators into the region, our consent is also required, because this is our border as well. Armenia cannot place military personnel of other countries on one of our borders. It’s impossible. This requires our consent, and Azerbaijan will not give such consent”, Gadirli concluded during his speech on the Public Television of Azerbaijan.
