The aggravation of relations between Russia and Armenia and Azerbaijan may not be accidental, but quite logical in the context of the statements of the US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack about the lease of the so-called “Zangezur corridor”.
This was stated in an interview with the RTVI TV channel by the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs Konstantin Zatulin, Sputnik Armenia reports.
Barrack, speaking about the protracted dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan “over the 32-kilometer road”, considered it theoretically possible that the US could take control of this section of the road on a long-term lease. At the same time, he did not specify that he was talking about the Syunik region – an internationally recognized territory of Armenia.
Earlier, the press secretary of the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, Nazeli Baghdasaryan, responded to this statement. She stated that the version voiced by the US Ambassador to Turkey Thomas Barrack about the transfer of part of the territory of Armenia under the control of a third party is unacceptable and legally impossible.
According to Zatulin, the ambassador’s words may not be a bluff, but a real plan.
“I think that this is a very real prospect. And I even think that all the recent aggravations in Russian-Armenian and even Russian-Azerbaijani relations are connected precisely with the fact that Azerbaijan and Armenia artificially escalated tensions so as not to ask Moscow about the Zangezur corridor,” the parliamentarian said.
Zatulin recalled that it was previously said that if such a corridor were created, it would be controlled by Russian troops or Russian representatives. However, now “no one is worried about this either in Armenia or in Azerbaijan.”
He believes that it is important for Yerevan and Baku that the new masters of the region come and exercise this control. Therefore, a situation is being deliberately created where, due to the freezing of relations, it is not advantageous to ask Russia about this, but it is advantageous to negotiate with the Americans.
“I think the US Ambassador to Turkey really said what they are negotiating about,” he concluded.