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Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan spoke about the change of the route in the Lachin Corridor at a cabinet meeting on Thursday.

“The next development about the the Lachin Corridor is related to the route change. As you know, as a result of the agreement reached between the authorities of Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh in August 2022, the route of the Lachin Corridor changed with the launch of a new road. But since the road connecting the Lachin Corridor to the Republic of Armenia was not completely ready, a temporary route was launched that entered the territory of the Republic of Armenia through the Kornidzor Bridge, then again into the territory of Azerbaijan, then again into the territory of the Republic of Armenia. According to that agreement, this route was supposed to operate until April 1, 2023,” he said.

“Yesterday, we informed the Azerbaijani side that, according to the agreement, after the Kornidzor bridge, the road will continue only through the territory of Armenia, and that the border guard troops of the Republic of Armenia will take over the protection of the state border of the Republic of Armenia in that area. I would like to emphasize that the border guard troops will be stationed at the state border of the Republic of Armenia in the same positions where the units of the Ministry of Defense were stationed until now. I have to record that a while ago information appeared in the Azerbaijani news, which tries to present what happened as another blockbuster, sorry for this formulation.

“This approach is not constructive in the least. I repeat that no change in the Armenian positions has occurred as a result of all this, with the difference that we intend to protect the area in question, unlike before, through Border Guard troops. In other words, the change that takes place is as follows. from the same positions along the state border of the Republic of Armenia, the units of the Ministry of Defense will withdraw according to the plan, and units of the Border Guard troops will be deployed in their place. We made the same proposal to Azerbaijan as well, so that the same would happen on Azerbaijan's side. I hope that this process will take place without provocations,” the premier noted.

Pashinyan reiterated his government’s commitment to the peace agenda “against the odds”.

“We hope that in the near future there will be concrete movements in both Stepanakert-Baku and Armenia-Azerbaijan negotiation formats. The Republic of Armenia is ready for that work, and we hope that in the Stepanakert-Baku format, there will be a similar willingness from both Baku and Stepanakert. It is clear, of course, that the launch of appropriate international mechanisms and guarantees is extremely important in this context,” he said.