Artsakh is surrendered, Russians are withdrawn, but still no open borders

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is indignant. In his new article, Pashinyan complains that Baku refuses to accept constructive proposals from Yerevan. “The Republic of Armenia is ready to provide passage from western Azerbaijan to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic under the same legal conditions as those offered by Iran. In response to this, Azerbaijan says that the passage should be unhindered. In other words, is passage through Iran hindered? After all, we are saying that we are ready to provide the same passage under the same legal conditions,” Pashinyan writes.

Translating from “Pashinyan’s language” into a more understandable language, it can be stated that even after all Pashinyan’s concessions and assurances of readiness to provide simplified passage for Azerbaijani goods, Baku does not accept Armenia’s proposals. This means that Ilham Aliyev wants the corridor. Moreover, he is also blackmailing Pashinyan by saying that if there is no corridor, Armenia will remain under blockade, or the “Crossroads of Peace” will officially turn into “Pashinyan’s Dead End.”

Pashinyan’s article also says that Russian border guards were withdrawn from the Margara checkpoint at the end of February precisely so that the Pashinyan government could provide a corridor to Azerbaijan and Turkey. “Cargo trucks can enter the territory of the Republic of Armenia via the Lachin-Kornidzor section through the Kornidzor checkpoint, travel on our roads to the Armenia-Turkiye border, and enter Turkiye through the Margara checkpoint. The same goes for the opposite direction. The physical infrastructure necessary for such transit cargo transportation is ready now, and what remains to be done is to adopt a de jure decision. We are ready to adopt such a decision, provided there is interest from Azerbaijan and Turkiye,” writes the “velvet leader” brought to power in 2018.

It turns out that Moscow did not want a corridor, but on the contrary, the presence of the Russian border troops prevented Pashinyan from turning Armenia into one large corridor for so long in the hope of gaining political support in Ankara and Baku. Let’s also note the following: Artsakh has been surrendered to the enemy, Russian border guards have been withdrawn from all sections of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, and border guards have also been withdrawn from the Margara checkpoint, but neither Baku nor Ankara is in a hurry to open the border and unblock communications.

There are not many options explaining the motivation of the behavior of Ilham Aliyev and Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Either they want to get an extraterritorial corridor along the route they need, where Armenia should build all the infrastructure at its own expense, or they are waiting for the end of talks between Russia and the United States on the security architecture in Eurasia, and only then will they act, not excluding the military scenario of solving problems in the event of a negative outcome of Moscow-Washington talks.

In any case, the fact is obvious: Nikol Pashinyan surrendered Karabakh, withdrew the Russians, but did not receive open borders. The attitude of Azerbaijanis and Turks towards Armenia has not changed either. Their goals have not changed: the destruction of the Armenian statehood and Armenians as a political factor in the South Caucasus. In this context, it should have been understood that by surrendering Artsakh, it is impossible to change the strategic goals of both Baku and Ankara.

Think about it.…