Political analysts link highway blocking on Armenian border with problem of transit to NAR

Azerbaijan has blocked the Goris-Kapan highway for residents of Armenia in order to get concessions from Yerevan on the Zangezur Corridor issue, Beniamin Pogosyan, a political analyst, and Tatul Akopyan, the coordinator of the ANI Research Centre, have stated.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the Azerbaijani State Frontier Service reported an attack on August 25 committed by Armenian militaries on an Azeri border guard. Yerevan refuted the accusations, but Azerbaijani militaries blocked a section of the Goris-Kapan highway and stopped cars with Armenian residents for several hours. On August 26, Azerbaijan blocked the second section of the highway.

Azerbaijan has gained control over the section of the Goris-Kapan highway not according to the statement of November 9, 2020, but in December on the basis of an oral agreement, Beniamin Pogosyan, a political analyst, has noted.

He believes that Azerbaijan was looking for a reason to block the highway in order to put pressure on Armenia and achieve concessions on the issue of a transport corridor between Baku and the Azerbaijani enclave – the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic (NAR).

Tatul Akopyan, the coordinator of the ANI Armenian Research Centre, has noted that the Goris-Kapan highway was also blocked from 1990 to 1993 at the peak of the Karabakh war. Since the fall of 2020, Armenian authorities have failed to equip an alternative route.

The problem will persist until Armenian authorities create a full-fledged alternative to the Goris-Kapan highway, Mr Akopyan has stressed.

In Akopyan's opinion, the hopes for Russia are in vain spread in the Armenian society. "It is beneficial for Russia to keep corridors under its control: in this way, it will control both Armenia and Azerbaijan," he has concluded.