Legal regimes of Zangezur, Lachin corridors should be same: Aliyev

The legal regime of the soon-to-open Zangezur land corridor linking Azerbaijan with its autonomous exclave of Nakhchivan should be the same as that governing the Lachin corridor between Armenia and the region of Nagorno Karabakh, Azerbaijan's president said Tuesday.

"Today, there are no customs [posts] in the Lachin corridor. Therefore, there should be no customs [posts] in the Zangezur corridor. If Armenia would insist on using customs facilities to control cargos and people, then we will insist on the same in the Lachin corridor. This is logical," said Ilham Aliyev during a joint news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels.

Once part of Azerbaijan's territory, the area of Zangezur was later assigned by the Soviet Union to the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic in the 1920s. It is now set to be the site of a new passageway between Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan in the wake of last year's conflict in the Karabakh region.

Azerbaijan now plans to build various projects through the Zangezur corridor, including motorways and rail lines.

Aliyev noted that a customs regime should be implemented either in both corridors or none of them, adding it would be up to Yerevan to decide, as both options were suitable for Baku.

"And the decision is to be made by Armenia. We are ready for both options: Either no customs [regimes] on both, or both customs [regimes] on the two," he said.