Yerevan /Mediamax/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated today that Azerbaijan’s aim is to complete the policy of ethnic cleansing of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh which may be testified with the distortion of point 9 of November 9 statement by Azerbaijan.

At the cabinet sitting today Pashinyan reminded that the point 9 of the agreement is about the restoration of all regional transport and economic communications, operation of the road tying Azerbaijan’s western regions with Nakhichevan.

He said that Armenia has presented comprehensive proposals on the matter which relate to the reconstruction of Yeraskh-Joulfa-Ordubad-Meghri-Horadiz railway, reopening or building of motorway which will also tie western regions of Azerbaijan with Nakhichevan with the conduction of border, customs and other necessary controls at border check-points.

“Azerbaijan both accepts and does not accept our position. They say they agree with any legal regime for the operation of this road, but only if the same regime operates in Lachin corridor. To substantiate this position, they make reference to the November 9 statement. Their demand is unfounded for two reasons, first, the November 9 statement does not mention any territory of the Republic of Armenia and the corridor related to it, but it only contains an expression “Lachin corridor”. The parallels between Nagorno-Karabakh and Nakhichevan are strange for several reasons: Nakhichevan has a land connection with Azerbaijan through Iran and Turkey and an air connection through Iran, Turkey and Armenia. Nagorno-Karabakh has only one land connection with Armenia – through Lachin corridor, and turning it into a territory controlled by Azerbaijan in any way means eviction of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh,” the prime minister said.

Pashinyan also said that Armenia is ready to open the road and the railway within the framework of its proposals but considers it necessary to sign a legally binding agreement with Azerbaijan.

“We see a very concrete risk that after Armenia builds both the road and the railway, Azerbaijan will refuse to open the border. It will turn out that neither Armenia, nor Azerbaijan, nor third countries will be able to use the infrastructure that has required an investment of several hundred million dollars,” he said.