Russia makes new accusations against Armenia, warns of "serious risks"

PanARMENIAN.Net - The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, has made a number of accusations against Armenia and warned the country of "serious risks".

“Some politicians in Yerevan complaint about Russia’s efforts to promote Armenian-Azerbaijani normalization, and talk about the “ineffectiveness” of trilateral agreements signed at the highest level in 2020-2022. We believe it is necessary to clarify these issues,” Zakharova said in a statement on Thursday, December 14.

“A set of trilateral agreements, consisting of statements by the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia dated November 9, 2020, January 11 and November 26, 2021, October 31, 2022, is a “road map” for reconciliation between Baku and Yerevan that has no alternatives. It covers all key areas of Armenian-Azerbaijani normalization: unblocking economic and transport ties, delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, concluding a peace treaty and developing dialogue between representatives of the public and expert circles. These agreements remain in force; neither party has withdrawn its signature.”

In view of the absence of a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Zakharova said, attempts to disavow said documents are “extremely dangerous”.

According to her, such a step will “inevitably result in serious risks, primarily for Armenia”.

“It will not be possible to stop these challenges with the help of Western pseudo-intermediaries. The USA and the EU, unlike Russia, do not seek to bring peace and stability to Armenia and other states of the South Caucasus; their task is completely different - to oust us and other regional players, to create a new source of tension after the Balkans, the Middle East and Ukraine,” Zakharova said.

“We cannot fail to note a number of actions by Yerevan, due to which it was not possible to fully implement the trilateral agreements. We have already indicated these points. The point is that the Armenian side at the summit under the auspices of the EU in October 2022 in Prague changed its position on Karabakh by 180 degrees, recognizing it as part of Azerbaijan and “forgetting” – as prompted by advisers from the European Union - to at least mention the need to ensure properly the rights and security of the Armenian population of the region. This decision radically changed the situation in the area where the Russian peacekeeping contingent is deployed.

“The Armenian side’s use of the Lachin corridor to supply arms to Karabakh in violation of tripartite agreements and Yerevan’s unwillingness to ensure the complete withdrawal of Armenian armed units from the region, which largely led to clashes in September of this year, also had a negative impact.

Armenia has repeatedly denied transporting ammunition to Nagorno-Karabakh via the Lachin Corridor – the sole route connecting Karabakh to Armenia, which was blocked by Azerbaijan in December 2022. Despite agreements signed by the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia, the route lost its significance for good when Azerbaijan launched a large-scale offensive in September 2023, captured Karabakh and forced over 100,000 people out of their homes.

“On the issue of unblocking transport communications, it was Yerevan that, time after time, in every possible way “frozen” the exit to specific agreements through the Trilateral Working Group, co-chaired by the vice-premiers. In particular, for many months the Armenian side has been blocking the start of work to restore railway communication between Azerbaijan and Armenia, refusing to comply with the provisions of paragraph 9 of the high-level statement of November 9, 2020.

“Despite the importance of the latest agreements between Baku and Yerevan on the exchange of prisoners and agreeing on the regulations of the Commission on the delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, real delimitation work with the advisory assistance of Russia, which the three leaders agreed on back in November 2021, has still not been launched. For the sake of inviting the EU mission to the republic, the Armenian side abandoned the CSTO mechanisms for stabilizing the situation in the border zones.”

The Collective security Treaty Organization (CSTO), of which Armenia is a member, did not intervene or express a political stance in support of Yerevan, when Azerbaijan attacked Armenia proper on multiple occasions between 2020 and 2023.

“So the stalled implementation of the above-mentioned decisions of senior leaders is a direct result of the inconsistency of Yerevan’s actions, and not the policies of Moscow, as some are trying to claim,” Zakharova went on to say.

“The way out of this difficult situation is obvious - to return to the implementation of trilateral agreements, for which the Russian side is ready to provide all the necessary assistance, the relevance and usefulness of which has been proven more than once. We confirm our proposal to organize the next round of negotiations on a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the very near future in Russia.”

According to a document signed by Yerevan and Baku on December 7, Azerbaijan will release 32 Armenian servicemen, while Armenia will release 2 Azerbaijani soldiers – one of whom was charged with murder after he killed an employee of the Zangezur Copper Molybdenum Combine

“The Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan will continue their discussions regarding the implementation of more confidence building measures, effective in the near future and call on the international community to support their efforts that will contribute to building mutual trust between two countries and will positively impact the entire South Caucasus region,” the statement added.