Armenia invites new peacekeeping missions, but gears up for war No sign of peace treaty yet

The Armenian government continues to whip up hysteria around the Lachin road, attempting to politicise the event in order to further draw international attention to the "plight of the Karabakh Armenians" who have allegedly been subjected to a "humanitarian crisis due to Baku's aggression". This conclusion is confirmed, among other things, by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's statement at an Armenian government meeting that the "humanitarian crisis" surrounding "Nagorno-Karabakh" has had a rather wide international response.

It is clear that for Armenia, with its image as an occupying country, any opportunity to put Baku in an unattractive light is extremely important. Therefore, Pashinyan stressed in his speech that the UN Security Council held an "important" discussion on the situation around the Lachin road. That is, we are talking about the organization whose resolutions Armenia has brazenly ignored for nearly 30 years of occupation of Azerbaijani territories. However, Yerevan is now appealing to the UN and even inviting various Western missions to Karabakh.

"We must actively work to ensure that UN, OSCE, or OSCE Minsk Group fact-finding missions are sent to Nagorno-Karabakh and the Lachin corridor," the Armenian premier said.

Despite the absurdity of the idea, there is no doubt that Armenia will be active in the direction of internationalizing the situation, especially after the EU mission, which was recently on its territory. Another thing is that it is unlikely to succeed in resurrecting the mission of the long-dead OSCE Minsk Group; Baku has clearly stated its position here and is not going to change it. As for Armenia's plans regarding the deployment of the UN mission in Karabakh, Yerevan is also unlikely to succeed. Last week, UN Secretary-General António Guterres, expressing concern about the situation on the Lachin road, called on both sides to de-escalate tensions without, however, specifically addressing his message to Baku. This is the first thing.

Secondly, Gutteres called on the sides to implement the agreements reached earlier, which is automatically addressed to the party preventing the implementation of these agreements, i.e. Yerevan. Consequently, the Armenian dream of deploying a UN mission to Karabakh is unrealistic.

There is more to come. Pashinyan claimed that Yerevan had allegedly handed over to Baku its proposals for a peace treaty, including border delimitation and the unblocking of communications, and was even prepared to sign a document with similar content. According to him, these proposals include a solution to the problem of "occupied territories of the Republic of Armenia".

"Our position remains the same: Azerbaijan must end its occupation of the sovereign territories of the Republic of Armenia and its troops must be withdrawn from the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia," Pashinyan said.

According to Pashinyan, Armenia is waiting for a positive response from Baku to the proposals on "ensuring border security". It is worth mentioning that back in March, official Baku named five principles for the normalization of ties with Armenia. Let us recall them once again:

- Mutual recognition of each other's sovereignty, territorial integrity, inviolability of international borders, and political independence;

- Mutual confirmation of the absence of territorial claims of states to each other and legal obligation not to present such claims in the future;

- To refrain from threatening each other's security in inter-State relations, from the use of threats and force against political independence and territorial integrity, and from other circumstances inconsistent with the purposes of the UN Charter;

- delimitation and demarcation of the State border, the establishment of diplomatic relations;

- opening of transport and communications, the establishment of other relevant communications, and cooperation in other areas of mutual interest.

That is, Baku will not discuss ambivalent peace agenda with Yerevan.

However, on the same day, the Secretary of the Armenian Security Council Armen Grigoryan also acknowledged at a briefing with journalists at the National Assembly that the draft peace agreement did not include a point on Karabakh, as "the Armenian government itself was not interested in including this point in the proposals on border security and demarcation initially sent to Azerbaijan". He said the 'Karabakh issue' would be raised in the future if the sides came to an agreement on the current package of proposals.

Moreover, Grigoryan said that the signing of a peace treaty by the end of the year is possible if Baku responds positively to Yerevan's proposals. It should be recalled that in early December the secretary of the Security Council assured that Armenia was continuing to work on the text of the peace treaty and that the edited version would soon be handed over to Baku. Around the same period, speaking in the National Assembly of Armenia, Armen Grigoryan said that agreement had been reached between Yerevan and Baku only on one point of the peace treaty - the establishment of diplomatic relations in accordance with the Vienna Convention, while there was no clear agreement on the other points of the peace treaty. He specified that it is about Karabakh, the delimitation and demarcation of the border, the unblocking of communications, and the humanitarian issues on which the discussions are going on.

Judging by Yerevan's frantic efforts, it seems that it has not yet grasped Baku's ground rules. The Azerbaijani side is not going to discuss the issue of the Karabakh economic region with Armenia, because it is an internal affair of Azerbaijan. And the sooner this is understood in Yerevan, the better for the Armenian side. The illogical statements by the Armenian authorities indicate that Yerevan intends to continue torpedoing the signing of the peace treaty. Incidentally, Armenia's refusal to participate in the December 23 talks in Moscow with the foreign ministers of Russia and Azerbaijan also confirms this. We recall that there had been a meeting planned in Moscow on December 23 between the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia to discuss the preparation of a peace treaty, but Yerevan refused to go to the Russian capital.

While Sergei Lavrov and Jeyhun Bayramov were preparing to discuss in Moscow ways of normalizing relations between Baku and Yerevan, the Armenian side has traditionally resorted to provocation, shelling the positions of the Azerbaijani Army, thus demonstrating a commitment to war, not peace. Well, if Armenia insists on going to war, it will get it again. As it did after Pashinyan's dancing in Shusha and large-scale provocations in September 2020. The choice, as they say, is up to Armenia...