On January 15, Alen Simonyan, the Speaker of the Armenian National Assembly, stated that he does not believe that the Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations have taken a drastic step backward. "No, nothing radical has happened; negotiations, exchange of (opinions) continue, and we can state that there is development," the speaker of the Armenian parliament asserted.

Simonyan noted that direct negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan are not excluded. According to him, any state that tries to mediate the peace process between two other countries has its own interests. "There is no need to be romantic, to think that, for example, the French love us for our beautiful eyes and history, and the other nation does not - these are fairy tales. Interests either coincide, or they don't," Simonyan said.

He said, "All those countries that want to have leverage over Armenia and Azerbaijan will try to be good mediators for this purpose. However, both Yerevan and Baku should solve their issues so as not to be a bargaining chip in the big game of other countries."

"I don't rule out that direct negotiations can also take place because we had positive experience of such negotiations. For example, the return of 32 prisoners. But, of course, the international community is also an important point," Simonyan said.

"There is no clause about the 'Zangezur Corridor' in the treaty, and there cannot be, Armenia's Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan told journalists. We said yes, we understand that Azerbaijan wants a way to move from one part of its country to another, we said that we are ready to open all the roads for them, we said that maybe there could be some kind of eased process so they can move, but there is nothing extraterritorial," the official noted.