Commentary on the allegations made by the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan in his speech at the meeting of the government held on April 27, 2023 regarding the establishment of a checkpoint on the Azerbaijan-Armenia border

We strongly reject the nonsensical claims made by the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan during his speech at the government meeting on April 27 regarding the establishment of a checkpoint on the Azerbaijan-Armenia border.

Any intervention of Armenia in the establishment of a border checkpoint by Azerbaijan on its sovereign territory, which is an internal matter, is a claim against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and is against the commitments undertaken by Armenia in Prague and Sochi, as well as all the norms and principles of international law. Such statements of Armenia, besides not contributing to peace and stability in the region, aim to deliberately increase tensions.

It is enough to remind the Prime Minister of Armenia of the actions of Armenia that serve to escalate the situation and are contrary to the Trilateral Statement after the 44-day Patriotic War, including the continuation of military provocations against Azerbaijan, the use of Lachin road for illegal activities, the transportation of weapons and mines, and the incomplete withdrawal of the armed forces of Armenia from the territory of Azerbaijan. In this regard, the position that the establishment of the checkpoint to prevent the aforementioned provocations has a negative impact on the peace process is completely unacceptable. On the contrary, taking this step will serve to effectively prevent the stated illegal actions.

It is completely wrong to regard the establishment of the checkpoint, which will regulate the entry-exit mode from the border, as the closure of the road. Besides, despite the claims of the Prime Minister, Azerbaijan has authority and sovereign rights over the Lachin road under the Trilateral Statement. As always, Azerbaijan guarantees the safe movement of citizens, vehicles, and goods on the Lachin-Khankendi road within its obligations and will continue to take appropriate measures in this direction.

The absurd claim of the Prime Minister that the border checkpoint is established for "ethnic cleansing" is unacceptable. There are appropriate conditions for the transparent, safe, and organized passage of local Armenian residents of the Karabakh region of the Republic of Azerbaijan from the checkpoint in both directions.

Regarding the Prime Minister's repeated desires and claims on issues such as dialogue with Armenian residents, "guarantee of security", "dispute resolution mechanism", and "sending an international fact-finding mission", we note that Azerbaijan will carry out the dialogue with Armenian residents within its own legislation, and intervention of third parties in this matter is unacceptable.

Instead of making baseless statements, we demand Armenia take a responsible and constructive approach to peace agreement negotiations, which they have refused since last December, and comply with the obligations under the Trilateral Statement including the opening of communications, the complete withdrawal of its forces from the territories of Azerbaijan, and refrain from taking steps aimed at the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan.