“The territorial integrity, sovereignty, and jurisdiction of the Republic of Armenia certainly cannot be outsourced,” Pashinian’s press secretary, Nazeli Baghdasarian, said in a Facebook post. “The business management of railways, pipelines, and power lines can. By the way, the maintenance and management of highways in Armenia always has been outsourced to private companies.”
Pashinian confirmed on July 16 reports that the United States proposed recently that an American company be hired for that purpose. The idea has been discussed during Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks, he said, adding that no final agreement has been reached yet. Pashinian also seemed open to the idea of a 100-year U.S. lease on the would-be transport link also floated by Washington.
Russia and Iran spoke out against the U.S. proposals later in July. A senior Armenian parliamentarian allied to Pashinian, Arman Yeghoyan, said shortly afterwards that Armenia has rejected the proposed U.S. lease “because we saw a danger of ceding our sovereignty there.” But another senior lawmaker, Ruben Rubinian, said Yerevan has only refrained from discussing any transit arrangements that do not conform to Armenian law.
Baghdasarian claimed that only Armenian media outlets see contradictions in the statements made by Pashinian and his political allies. She said she is weighing in on the issue to end the “confusion.”
Pashinian’s spokeswoman went on to insist that Yerevan will not even consider arrangements “incompatible” with Armenia’s territorial integrity. She did not shed light on “various formulas” discussed by it with Baku.
Armenian opposition leaders have dismissed similar assurances given by Baghdasarian and other officials earlier. They maintain that that Pashinian has agreed to open an extraterritorial land corridor for Azerbaijan through Armenia’s strategic Syunik region. They say that the U.S. proposal, if accepted, would undermine Armenian sovereignty over Syunik.