A discussion about opening a transport corridor between Azerbaijan and its exclave of Nakhchivan through Armenian territory will be difficult without solving the issue of prisoner exchange in the wake of the armed conflict in the breakaway republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, the spokeswoman for the Armenian prime minister, Mane Gevorgyan said Thursday
YEREVAN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th January, 2021) A discussion about opening a transport corridor between Azerbaijan and its exclave of Nakhchivan through Armenian territory will be difficult without solving the issue of prisoner exchange in the wake of the armed conflict in the breakaway republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, the spokeswoman for the Armenian prime minister, Mane Gevorgyan said Thursday.
Previously, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev proposed to create a corridor connecting Nakhchivan, which is jammed between Armenia, Iran and Turkey, with the rest of Azerbaijan. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, are said to have responded positively to the idea. Earlier in the day, Aliyev said that Turkey, Russia, Armenia and Iran would be allowed to use the route as well. According to Gevorgyan, the Armenian side is interested in being able to move its cargo through Azerbaijan to Russia and Iran and vice versa.
"Nevertheless, a comprehensive discussion of the issue will be difficult without implementation of Provision 8 of the joint statement [on the ceasefire in Karabakh], which mandates the exchange of prisoners, hostages, other detained persons and bodies of the dead. The Armenian side also deems it important to expand search and rescue operations in the combat zone," Gevorgyan told the state-run Armenpress news agency.
On November 10, president Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed an agreement on a ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh that was brokered by President Putin, ending the armed conflict which reignited in late September.
