Armenia PM: Azerbaijanis have closed off road section that was not in our territory on USSR maps

The sections of the 21-kilometer Goris-Kapan road which were outside the territory of Soviet Armenia on USSR maps were closed off by the Azerbaijanis on the grounds that an incident had taken place [there] last night, and that people from the Armenian side had entered and stabbed Azerbaijani border guards. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Thursday stated this in the National Assembly of Armenia—and referring to the Goris-Kapan interstate motorway’s closure by Azerbaijanis since Wednesday night.

“We officially say that the information about the stabbing does not correspond to reality,” he added.

According to the PM, an attempt is also made to spread rumors that the Armenian government has done something behind its people’s backs.

“On December 19, I delivered a message and spoke about the problems in the Goris-Kapan section. I have said that the undisrupted running of some of our roads may become difficult, but they are solvable, and we are making efforts towards them, including through having a tripartite document. You will ask: ‘Did we have a tripartite document?’ No, we did not have. But what has happened contradicts, as it is written in the December 19, 2020 statement by the Ministry of Defense, the agreement reached between Armenia and Russia. And that agreement has been secured. A trilateral statement about the preparation of which I have said was not signed. This is the whole issue,” the Armenian premier said.

Pashinyan announced that the alternative road Kapan-Aghvan is being asphalted. “We are asphalting it at a great pace. There is a normal, dirt road. I mean, Syunik Province, of course, is not cut off from Armenia,” he added.

According to Nikol Pashinyan, they had predicted that such situations could occur. “We have agreed in a way to regulate the transport traffic,” he said.