False Statements by Zatulin: He Claims that RA Undertook to Provide a Corridor to Azerbaijan by the November 9 Statement

On November 11, the Hraparak.am website published a conversation with Konstantin Zatulin, the First Vice-Chairman of the CIS Committee of the Russian State Duma who was recently declared a persona non grata in RA. In it, he addressed to a number of statements made during an interview of the First Channel presenter Petros Ghazaryan with Artsvik Minasyan, deputy of the NA “Armenia” faction.

Petros Ghazaryan, in particular, claimed that Zatulin accused the RA authorities of agreeing to provide a corridor to Azerbaijan.

“Zatulin, Mr. Minasyan, claims that in the statement of November 9, we signed for a corridor, and he says: go and ask the signatory what he signed. This is Aliyev’s narrative. […] When Zatulin repeats Aliyev’s thought and is obviously lying and it is aimed against our statehood, one of you does not say: dear Zatulin, maybe that is why you were deprived (of the right to enter Armenia, ed.),” Ghazaryan asked Artsvik Minasyan.

However, in the conversation with Hraparak.am, Zatulin denies the statements attributed to him by Petros Ghazaryan.

“One of the Armenian media outlets asked me why the Russian Federation demands from the Republic of Armenia to open a corridor. I told them to clarify everything regarding the issue of the corridor with Nikol Pashinyan as he has assumed or not assumed some commitments, including those related to the corridor. I did not refer to the tripartite statement at all,” said Zatulin, referring to the words he said in an interview to “Yerkir Media” TV station on October 15.

During it, however, Zatulin claimed that RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a provision on giving a corridor to Azerbaijan in the statement of November 9, 2020.

“I don’t quite understand the following: the questions about the possible corridor should be asked to those who signed the statement. Pashinyan signed it on the Armenian side. What was he thinking when he signed that agreement? And why are the Armenians re-addressing that issue to the Russian Federation, it was your Prime Minister who signed that provision,” said Zatulin.

In fact, Zatulin’s claim that he did not say that the Armenian side signed the provision of giving the corridor, and also did not refer to any agreement, is untrue. Zatulin referred to the statement of November 9, claiming that Pashinyan signed a provision to give a corridor.

This claim, in turn, is false as there is no clause in the statement of November 9, which specifies that RA undertakes to provide a corridor from its sovereign territory to Azerbaijan. Clause 9 of the statement only states that “All economic and transport links in the region shall be unblocked and that the Republic of Armenia shall guarantee the safety of transport communication between the western regions of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic with a view to organize the unimpeded movement of citizens, vehicles and cargo in both directions.”

Nane Manasyan