Jeyhun Bayramov set the terms on Tuesday. At a joint press conference with Hakan Fidan in Baku, Azerbaijan's foreign minister said that a 42-kilometre section of the Turkey to Nakhchivan railway passes through Armenia as part of what he calls the Zangezur Corridor, that "although this is considered Armenian territory, entry and exit will be carried out from Azerbaijan", that design work is to end this year and physical work is to begin in 2027, and that 95% of Azerbaijan's highway and 75% of its railway toward the Armenian border are built, in APA's account, published at 15:00 Baku time.
On Wednesday the Constitutional Court found the framework agreement with the United States on the route constitutional, News.am reported at 12:57, citing the court's external relations department; the text follows within three days and the agreement then goes to the National Assembly, where the prime minister took the government hour the same afternoon.
Marianna Ghahramanyan of the opposition Strong Armenia bloc read Bayramov's sentence to the prime minister and asked what entry and exit through Azerbaijan means, and whether Armenian law will apply in full on the section. Speaker Ruben Rubinyan corrected the quotation: the minister had said the entry and exit points lie on Azerbaijani territory, at Azerbaijan's border, to the west and east of Syunik.
Pashinyan did not dispute the geography. "There is no other option in which the two entrances and two exits of TRIPP would not be from Azerbaijan; there is no other option. TRIPP runs from Azerbaijan's border to Azerbaijan's border," he said, in News.am's account, adding that the agreement the court had cleared would come to the Assembly with the jurisdiction of the Republic of Armenia written into it. Asked who decides at the moment of entry and exit, he answered with the name of the state: "The Republic of Armenia, specifically."
The toponym question came from the same bloc. Aram Vardevanyan asked why the prime minister calls Tigranashen by its Azerbaijani name, Kyarki, when Baku says nothing comparable about Artsvashen. "By saying Kyarki I neutralised the last point of possible escalation, which forces inside and outside Armenia were evidently preparing to use," Pashinyan said, Armenpress reported at 21:33. To Andranik Gevorgyan's question which settlement he intends to surrender, the answer was that the internationally recognised territory of Armenia "was not and cannot be the subject of bargaining".
Roman Hambardzumyan of the ruling faction asked about the Russian base in Gyumri. Since 2018, Pashinyan said, no one in Armenia had raised its withdrawal with Moscow; on returning from Bishkek he had seen Putin say that if Armenia wants the base withdrawn, Russia will withdraw it. His own line, repeated to the chamber: Armenia never raised the question and would not object if Russia decided to leave, because "the presence of the base is not of vital importance for the Republic of Armenia", and "if Russia wants to keep the base, we are ready to discuss".
TRIPP runs from Azerbaijan's border to Azerbaijan's border
Sergei Lavrov supplied the other half of the afternoon. Putin and Pashinyan agreed in Bishkek to hold "a special separate bilateral meeting" and talk frankly about Yerevan's wish to join the EU and everything that follows from it, the Russian foreign minister said at a youth festival, in News.am's account, published at 17:50. Moscow has no intention of stopping Armenia choosing its partners, he said, but does not want to sponsor its preparation for EU membership through the preferences it receives in the Eurasian Economic Union.
Harutyun Harutyunyan of Strong Armenia asked whether the government is moving toward membership or creating the impression of it. Relations with the EU are at the highest point in their history, Pashinyan answered; such decisions "are taken by the people and with the participation of the people"; there is no referendum today "because there is no subject for a referendum at this moment"; visa liberalisation is under way. Support of 40,000 drams a month plus 10,000 for utilities (about $110 and $28) for people displaced from Karabakh continues for another year, he told Nazeli Baghdasaryan; after that, he said, the displaced should use the programmes open to every citizen.
Two days produced two definitions of one line. Baku's, spoken beside Fidan on Tuesday, is a corridor with its own name, a construction calendar that starts in 2027 and gates on its own territory. Yerevan's, spoken in the chamber on Wednesday, is a company under Armenian jurisdiction with the state at the gates. On the map the two agree, and the prime minister said so in one sentence: the section is Armenian, both ends are Azerbaijani. They differ on the noun, which is why the Assembly's vote on the agreement will be fought over the word jurisdiction and not over 42 kilometres. Lavrov's meeting is the other half of the same afternoon: the base is now "not of vital importance" and the EU relationship is at "the highest point" in its history, and Putin will get to raise both in one room. The watch: the court's text; the Assembly's date; the meeting's date; whether "entry and exit from Azerbaijan" acquires a customs meaning in the documents of the TRIPP company, 74% American and 26% Armenian for 49 years.