Situation on the Lachin-Syunik border as of midday 17 May

Baku/17.05.21/Turan: On the evening of 16 May ,the Armenian media reported that from the morning of 17 May the Azerbaijani military would leave their positions in Syunik. However, no confirmation or reports about this had appeared before noon.

At a meeting of the Armenian Security Council the previous evening, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that there had been no fundamental change in the situation but that some Azerbaijani troops had left Armenian territory on 14 May. "There are indications that this process will continue, but in general I consider the military-political situation unchanged after the 12th," he said.

For this reason, Armenia will insist on resolving the crisis with the participation of the CSTO, he said and rejected Ilham Aliyev's statements on the opening of the "Zangezur corridor".

"Armenia has never discussed and will not discuss the issue of the corridor," he said, but immediately added that "opening of communications in the region is on our political agenda.

As for the clarification of the borders, it cannot be a bilateral process, he said, because Armenia and Azerbaijan have no relations, so the process must be trilateral. However, Pashinyan did not name a third party.

However, if political methods fail, Armenia intends to use military-political mechanisms - the CSTO Armenian-Russian agreements, he said. -02D-